The following summaries and transcripts were created with NotebookLM from the following video which was streamed live on September 23rd during the Nordspace launch attempt. The launch didn’t proceed due to “A pad anomaly has caused residual vaporized fuel to cause a minor pad fire.” This was later qualified, “the root cause has been discovered to be related to our propellant quality slightly differing between vehicle tests at our test facility in Ontario, compared to our first launch test in Newfoundland and Labrador at our spaceport.”

We produced three summaries from the interviews with Hubert Fortier, David Diaz and Lakshmanan Velappan. We also appended below the raw transcripts created by Ai which may contain some spelling errors. If there are factual errors in the summaries, contact me at editor@nanographene.org

Can you give me a summary of the interview with Hubert Fortier starting at 57:40 in the video?
[note transcript was based on the live video, the time on the archived video above doesn’t match and is 1:42:15]

The interview with Hubert Fortier starts with an introduction to his role and experience.

Hubert Fortier’s Role and Background

• Hubert is a Propulsion System Engineer at NordSpace.
• He leads most of the engineering efforts, covering mechanical systems, structures, flight dynamics, and organizing launch operations. He also serves as the acting Launch Director and works on ensuring compliance with Canadian launch regulations.
• Hubert was born in Fort McMurray, Alberta. He initially became interested in rockets because he liked “blowing stuff up” when he was younger, but was later inspired by model rocketry.
• A pivotal moment for him was seeing a SpaceX rocket explode in the summer of 2016, which set him on the path to work on orbital rockets, specifically a Canadian one.
• He attended UBC, where he co-founded the UBC rocketry team, gaining experience in high-power rocketry and liquid hot fires.
• He gained invaluable experience working at SpaceX as a Propulsion Systems Engineer intern, specifically working on the booster, SN13 through SN15, and on the material side related to Raptor engines and Starship technologies.

Despite this, he chose to return to Canada to work on Canadian launch initiatives.

The Taiga V2 Rocket and Technical Challenges

Hubert discussed the specific vehicle they are preparing to launch, the Taiga V2:

• Propellants and Systems: The Taiga V2 utilizes Jet A fuel (a sustainable aviation fuel) and liquid oxygen. This choice is standard for their long-term development path toward achieving orbit.
• Engineering Complexity: Using these propellants introduces several technical challenges, including managing cryogenics (LOX), dealing with a strong oxidizer, and needing to cool the engine using regen cooling.
• Manufacturing and Materials: NordSpace utilizes advanced manufacturing techniques, including 3D printing the Inconel 718 tanks and metal 3D printing for the rocket engine.
• Slim Margins: Getting these systems to work together requires managing the mass budget, ensuring stability, and controlling valves. Hubert emphasizes that material science is critical for pushing the envelope, requiring materials to be lighter, stronger, and more resistant to corrosion.
• Systems Integration: He stressed the importance of systems engineering, noting that integrating systems—such as fluid control, thermal management, high-pressure/high-temperature propellants, cryogenics, and novel materials—is crucial. NordSpace does much of the manufacturing domestically, which is key for vertical integration and opens possibilities for advanced aerospace manufacturing in Canada.

Current Status and Future Ambitions

When asked about his feelings regarding the launch, Hubert expressed excitement to get the rocket off the pad so the team can focus on the many challenging firsts that await Canada in rocketry.

• The interviewer mentioned that the rocket is only the “tip of the iceberg,” as NordSpace is also focusing on policy, community management, building the business case, and developing a satellite program, an orbital launch program, and a new lunar project.
• Hubert confirmed that the launch is viewed as a historic moment and a technical accomplishment for Canada, stating that it is something that “should have been done a long time ago”.

Hubert is one of the two people who works in Mission Control, alongside the Mission Control Officer. He confirmed that for the larger orbital vehicle, Titan (which will be about 25m tall and 1.5m in diameter), they are already spending significant time developing new materials, including composites and innovative processes.

Can you give me a summary of the interview with David Diaz starting at 1:21:41 in the video?
[note transcript was based on the live video, the time on the archived video above doesn’t match and is 2:05:30]

The interview with David Diaz starts with him confirming he arrived at the launch site very early, at 3:00 a.m..
David Diaz’s Background and Career at MDA

• Origin and Education: David was born in Nicaragua, and his parents immigrated to Toronto, where he grew up (making him a “Toronto boy”). He attended Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University, though the source calls it Ryerson), where he studied electrical and computer engineering, completing both his undergraduate and Master’s degrees there.
• Early Career at MDA: His first job after his Master’s degree was at MDA.
– MDA is famous for the Canada Arm and for helping extensively with the shuttle program.
– When David joined MDA, it was relatively small, around 120 people, allowing for close connections with co-workers and mentors; the company has since grown to 2,000 or more employees.
– His work at MDA involved FPGA work and cameras.
– He performed a lot of integration and testing, including hardware that went into space for one of the cameras.
– He also helped with the Ground Support (GSC) and test boards for the operations of the Canadarm3.
• Biotech and Space Technology: David also worked on several biotech-related projects while at MDA:
– He worked on integration testing for the synaptic arm, which included a camera and assisted surgeons with operations on the spine.
– He was the electrical lead on a project called Microprep (which he also referred to as “power blades” while correcting himself). Microprep is essentially a lab on chip that uses microfluidics and gives astronauts the ability to perform DNA tests and blood sample tests on station.
– He highlighted the value of this work, noting that innovations first tested in space (like microfluidics and lab-on-chip technology) eventually benefit people on Earth in remote or low-income locations, and during emergency situations.

Transition to Nordspace and Philosophy

David’s decision to leave a mature company like MDA (where he worked for over a decade) to join a startup like Nordspace was based on a desire for change and a different approach to Canadian space initiatives:

• Entrepreneurial Spirit: He had always loved entrepreneurship and helping to build a company.
• Next Level Goal: He felt that, while the Canadarm was great, it was the previous generation’s achievement, and his generation needed the “next level” opportunity and wanted to “do something really big” that would engrave their generation in history.
• Leadership vs. Participation: This move resonated with the core idea that Canada needs to shift from “participants” (always “piggybacking,” or having other nations ask them to do specific tasks) to “leaders” who define the mission and “push the boundaries”. David felt this spirit and goal were present at Nordspace.
• Risk-Taking: Nordspace, as a startup, has the luxury of taking risks that others cannot in the inherently challenging and risky field of building rocket systems.

Avionics and the Taiga Rocket

David provided insight into his technical approach to the rocket, which is referred to as Taiga:

• Modular Avionics: He aimed to push the boundaries of how avionics are done for space applications by adopting a modular approach.
• Instead of relying heavily on custom boards (the traditional perception in space engineering), he uses simple, custom-made, or off-the-shelf modules that are grouped and stacked in layers like building blocks. He noted this approach for the Taiga rocket has been successful and reliable so far.
• Experience in Selection: David’s experience is crucial because, even among off-the-shelf boards, he knows which ones to select and which ones to avoid based on their subtle design differences and compatibility with required features. He valued using commodity parts where possible rather than designing everything from scratch, allowing the team to focus on the larger mission.

Final Thoughts

David expressed hope that Nordspace’s mission inspires people across Canada and the world. He warned against getting stuck honoring the past (like the BlackBerry company did) and stressed the importance of constantly looking for the “next level” and finding the “next big thing”. He commended the unique team at Nordspace for establishing a standard in Canada for ambition, culture, and a go-getter attitude, noting that people in Newfoundland have a valuable default reaction to new ideas: “okay yes, let’s figure out how to do this and let’s work the problem”.

Can you give me a summary of the interview with Lakshmanan Velappan starting at 1:47:52 in the video?
[note transcript was based on the live video, the time on the archived video above doesn’t match and is 2:31:50]

The interview with Lakshmanan Velappan starts at the beginning of source

Lakshmanan’s Role and Background

• Lakshmanan’s current role at Nordspace is Chief Propulsion Engineer.
• He started working with Nordspace three years ago and was the first employee.
• In his role, he primarily works on engines, cooling channels, and heat fluxes; he is directly responsible for anything that combusts.
• He also assists other mechanical engineers on the team with the design and analysis of mechanical structures.
• Lakshmanan has a background as a mechanical engineer.
• He previously worked with IC engines (internal combustion engines).
• He stated that he has always been interested in aerospace and space since he was a kid and still wants to go to space.
• His interest led him towards engine criteria, and he pursued a Master’s degree at the University of Toronto, where he focused on combustion and aerospace propulsion before joining Nordspace.

Nordspace’s Growth and Current Status

Lakshmanan reflected on the company’s journey and growth:

• He recalled starting with the interviewer in a basement cafeteria, moving to a facility that seemed massive but contained only dust, and working with only two people around a huge boardroom table.
• In barely three years, the team has grown to about 25 people, comprising talented engineers and scientists.
• Nordspace now has a rocket ready to launch, its own launch site, and has acquired various manufacturing capabilities.
• He described the progress as a “crazy upgrade” and a “beautiful experience”. He confirmed that the launch site now has a large road, a pad, and a rocket.

Technical Challenges and Slim Margins

A significant part of the discussion focused on the extreme precision required for high-performance liquid rockets:

• Lakshmanan emphasized that Nordspace’s rocket systems operate with very small margins.
• For example, a 5% difference in pressure (on either fuel or liquid oxygen) would entirely spoil the mission, causing combustion instabilities and cooling problems.
• These small margins are compounded by other tolerances, such as injection velocities and injection pressure differences.
• Ultimately, the working margins are incredibly tight, with a mere 0.05 megapascal pressure difference being enough to “screw our mission over”.
• He provided a comparison for the rocket’s tank walls (which are made of Inconel or inkol tanks, a superalloy two times the strength of steel). Increasing the wall thickness by just 5% would trigger a chain reaction: increased mass requires a beefier engine, which demands more pressure and fuel, drastically altering the mission criteria. Precision is therefore “unbelievable”.

Launch Procedures and Safety

The interview covered the rigorous procedures required for a professional liquid rocket launch:

• The operation involves a 70-page binder of detailed checklists that the team reviews every time they set up, often starting at 3:00 a.m..
• Precise communication is vital; any misinformation or system changes must be known across the board and recorded so they can be traced back if issues arise.
• Range procedures ensure safety by managing propellants, checking for public presence within the explosive diameter or dispersion rate, and halting the launch if necessary.
• The status of the pad is strictly monitored: it is designated yellow when propellants are being filled (only launch technicians present) and then red when the rocket has igniters, oxidizer, and fuel, making it potentially launchable (no one permitted near the rocket).
• Lakshmanan’s role is Mission Control Officer. In this role, he is one of the two people in Mission Control, controlling all the valves and monitoring the pressures and temperatures; he noted that the role is both exciting and stressful.
• The team must maintain site safety, safe distances, and explosive radiuses (REI), utilizing FAA regulations. Every kilogram of fuel stored translates into the explosive distance down to the meter, which is crucial learning that scales up when planning for the larger orbital launch site.
• The Rocket Integration Checklist (Section 10 of the binder) is critical because moving the rocket can loosen fasteners; they check every bolt and nut, including over 100 fasteners just in the engine bay.
• The Launch Procedure involves a step-by-step sequence once the rocket is on the pad, including health checks, re-health checks, and eventually lifting the rail. The rail itself is treated as a completely separate engineering system with its own checklist.
• Once the pad is clear (“red”), all actions (like filling the oxidizer and fuel) are performed from Mission Control, emphasizing maximum control and safety by minimizing personnel on the pad.
• They extensively plan for mishap procedures. Safety protocols include strict rules regarding fuel storage, the use of non-inflammable cotton-based fabric, and a buddy system for pad work.
• In Mission Control, safety is automated using safety sequences and shut-off sequences to safely relieve pressures. There are also analog mechanical systems to prevent the rocket from being fully pressurized and to evaporate liquid oxygen, keeping the rocket safe even if Mission Control loses complete control.
• The team must also adhere to cryogenic safety gear requirements and avoid wearing electronic watches near liquid oxygen, as they could spark if not intrinsically safe.

Future Outlook

Lakshmanan expressed his excitement to immediately start working on orbital projects after this launch, mentioning a desire to work on the turbo pumps and larger engines. He concluded that the team must continue to do things right, make the correct design decisions, and be competitive with countries that have long-established rocket programs.

Hubert Fortier transcript

Hubert nice nice to be with you today nice to be with you too beautiful day yep um yeah well I’m excited to just learn a little bit about your role and and what you do and mainly talk to some of the viewers out there who are really curious about what we’re doing but maybe if you could just start by telling us a little bit about um uh your role and and and what you you’re doing related to the rocket and a Nord Space in general that’d be great

yeah so I’m a propulsion system engineer here at Nord Space so I started out working on Taiga V2 or rocket that we’re trying to launch here today and a lot of what I do is just kind of leading the some of the most of the engineering efforts everything from mechanical systems to structures to helping understand the flight dynamics and how how we can organize the launch operations in general and uh and just being the acting launch director just figuring out how we can comply with just the launch regulations here in Canada

cool um and so I guess let’s step back a little bit what part of Canada do you originally come from and maybe tell us a little bit about your history with rockets because I think you probably got the uh you’re probably the biggest rocket nerd of of us all here maybe yeah

yeah so I I was born in Fort McMurray Alberta so started out small town turned out to be kind of a big town so oil sands kind of place and um yeah I got got into rockets because I just like blowing stuff up when I was younger and uh got in trouble for that here here and there and that uh I think what kind of like inspired me to work on rock is just some of my friends and whatnot they introduced me to model rocketry and then when I seen the SpaceX rocket blow up trying to send something to ISS it was like the summer of uh 2016 i remember I seen it on YouTube i was like that’s what I want to do and that’s that’s kind of like set me on this path to go towards I want to work on orbital rockets a Canadian orbital rocket

that’s awesome yeah i think the whole SpaceX situation um inspired a lot of us it’s kind of like we you know we missed that whole Apollo era and kind of the shuttle era too I think but uh at least a lot of us um were a bit younger but uh but yeah what SpaceX did is amazing um and yeah we’re not we’re trying we’re trying not to blow up our rockets so I I think one of the cool things about rocketry is uh it starts for a lot of people with this passion for like high energy uh high energy things and then it’s all about really controlling all that energy and then directing it in a specific direction and that’s what makes rockets go to space and and everything like that um and then so and then after that so you went to UBC right is that

Yeah yeah i went to UBC and at helped I helped start a team called UBC rocket university rocketry team then from that point I got to do high power rocketry helped out with some liquid liquid hot fires and then got into like even more so after after UBC just got right into the launch industry and then then I just want to learn as much as I can bring it bring it here in Canada keep it here in Canada so that’s why I’m here at Nord Space

yeah yeah no the Canada aspect is so important i mean so many of our engineers people like you like you would have uh gone to the US and other places now around the world before it used to kind of be like the US is sort of the only place uh you look back even Averro Arrow and all of that a lot of our engineers and scientists they went to the US and built the Apollo program but you did go to the US as well so you went to SpaceX right what did you do there yeah

so I I went there as just a propulsion and propulsion systems engineer just a starting out internship and that uh that was interesting but that wasn’t Canadian that’s not what’s it’s not that what I learned there was invaluable it it was invaluable it’s just that I want to work on a Canadian rocket so coming back here to Canada working at another startup in Vancouver trying to get get more get more of the launch industry going here but then coming back moving to the east coast here in uh here in Newfoundland trying to launch a rocket

that that’s you guys call the east coast that’s funny but we’re we’re here in Newfoundland right now yeah um sorry but so at SpaceX uh I guess you work closely with the the Raptor engines and a couple of the other key Starship related technologies

yeah yeah so that’s that was on booster and this SN13 to SN15 and Yeah then then afterwards moving over to the M material side right

yeah that’s that’s amazing um I think that’s kind of a common thread we have a lot of engineers including here at Nordspace who have international experience spacex Rocket Lab Rocket Factory Augsburg a couple of others um and then you know they would stay here they would they would build here and and I think one of the most interesting things about the rocket side of the space industry it it really brings out the most passionate people um and those are the people that we end up losing because we don’t have that here uh a lot of jobs a lot of talent a lot of IP so tell us a little bit about how you’re feeling about the upcoming launch uh you know we have this window next couple of days we’re here ready to launch right now in fact um how are you feeling

i think all I can think about is getting off the pad because there’s so many more exciting things for us to work on to try and accomplish to just try and solve um because it’s going to be a lot of firsts for us uh I think every step after we launch this rocket is going to be a first here in Canada and uh very exciting but mostly very challenging but I think it’s a great problem to have yeah it’s so much more than just the rocket i mean the rocket is kind of what everyone sees and what’s interesting but uh under the hood

I mean you experience it more than anyone i’ve seen you weekends week nights you know late Friday nights when everyone else would be out you know doing other things is you’re working on simulations and you’re working on our regulatory applications on the in another room we have people working on policy uh we’re working on community management uh we’re working on building the business case around this um the rocket’s kind of just the tip of the iceberg that everyone sees but it’s definitely the most exciting part and I totally agree with you like we have our orbital launch program going on we have our satellite program we have a new lunar project that we’ll be announcing in the next couple of months and so you know it’s it’s pretty exciting times i think everyone just wants to sort of we we’re really excited about this flight but we want to kind of close this chapter and move on but I guess last sort of question tell us a little bit about this vehicle you know this is not we we’ve all sort of grown up working on these like STS rockets and small like solid rockets this is not your kind of uh garden variety rocket this is this is a whole new type of rocket that’s not really been done commercially in Canada before so you know fundamentally what’s interesting about this rocket what’s what gives it the performance that we need that’ll that’ll scale up to orbit and beyond

so a big thing about this Taiga V2 is that we’re working with trying to use Jet A fuel a sustainable aviation fuel and liquid oxygen so being able to use those two is kind of standard in what we want to accomplish in kind of like in our development path to getting to orbit so having that on board imposes like various technical challenges in terms like dealing with cryogenics dealing with a strong oxidizer and that having to also cool the engine we have to use regen cooling for our engine and then when we start thinking about that well now we we have to think about the manufacturing process of the material so now we’re using a 3D printed uh inkl18 tanks now we have to think about the metal 3D printing our rocket engine and then as we start putting these systems together then we realize well we need all these plumbing connections we have to uh manage our budget our mass budget keep the rocket stable um we need to be able to control these valves so it makes us start to think about where all the other systems surrounding this rocket so for us Taiga V2 is not just uh the rocket itself is not just accomplishment it’s just that all the operations all the work to kind of bring all these systems together for us that’s what’s helping us build the structure in N space yeah it’s really the interconnects between the different systems

i think you say it more than almost anyone that at Nordspace you want everyone to be a systems engineer uh because being able to think holistically about the the vehicle this isn’t something that you sort of just light a match under and the thing goes you know there’s all kinds of fluid control systems thermal management um these very high temperature pressure uh propellants um cryogenics uh novel materials and we do basically all the manufacturing ourselves as well that’s something that’s often underappreciated we sort of feel like in Canada we’ve lost a lot of this domestic manufacturing capability but we’re trying to do a lot of that um here as well uh as a materials guy how how interesting do you find the fact that we do so much manufacturing here at Nordspace um and and what aspect of manufacturing the to the extent that you can share i know we’re working on some pretty exciting secretive stuff but what are you excited about next from a manufacturing challenge

i think that uh material is like one of those variables it’s very hard to fine-tune and manipulate and that it’s there’s so many things mechanically we can we can do oh we can change the the orientation we’re applying we can use uh some other mechanical contraptions to make a process more simpler but the what really kind of like pushes the envelope for us is that if we’re able to take a material make it lighter stronger and more resistant to corrosion that kind of just uh basically it makes us do a leap frog in terms of just like where we stand currently so being able to take a material combined uh easily out of the manufacturing processes combined with subtractive process as well that helps us kind of push the envelope of what we can accomplish here at NordSpace

that’s right uh and for orbital I mean not only is it a much larger vehicle so we’re you know we have multiple engines the vehicle itself would be about 25 m tall a meter and a half in diameter so quite the beast and then Titan will be you know a step significant step above that um but new materials as well i know you’re spending a lot of time with composites and some very innovative uh processes around that um so yeah I mean from a business standpoint as well it’s really exciting for us to be working on vertical integration and and domestic manufacturing because that opens up new possibilities for us to to scale out not just our space system side but also advanced aerospace manufacturing something that we could really benefit from here in Canada um yeah so you know any any final uh thoughts uh Hubert um that you want to share with everyone

well I think this is a pretty for us as a historic moment here in Canada just getting this rocket launched no it’s like to some people may look like a political scene but I think it’s a it’s a both a technical accomplishment it’s a historic moment it’s it’s something that should have been done a long time ago

absolutely absolutely i echo that entirely it’s thanks to people like you that this is happening um congratulations good luck with the launch

yeah thanks heat

David Diaz transcript

David hi R how are you good how are you feeling uh pretty good so you’ve been here since 3:00 a.m right since 3:00 a.m i’ll go up pretty early yeah well that’s that’s what it takes I guess um really excited to have you sit down for a couple minutes i know you’re really busy so sorry to take you take you away from that work but you know we’re just trying to give our viewers a little bit of an understanding uh about some of the technical challenges um and just like you know a little bit of the human side right it’s so uh it’s just so hard to do what you guys do um I think I think it’s great for people to to get to know you a little bit better so maybe David if you can tell tell everyone a little bit about uh you know who you are and your background maybe some of your your experiences in your life and career that led to this point um that’d be really awesome

yeah cool uh um well um well I I was born in Nicaragua um my parent my parents uh immigrated here when I was little uh grew up in Toronto been living there since I was little so I’m a Toronto boy um and I went to a university at Ryerson University um and I I took uh electrical and computer engineering there and um I just graduated from that after my undergrad I did my masters then after that I graduated from my masters and uh my first job was uh I was never thought about going to working in the space industry but it just so happened there was an opportunity and I and I took it um at MDA

and this is right after your masters so right out of school you went to MdA nice and for um a lot of folks may not know what MDA is maybe we’re going to get into that so just a little background what’s MDA famous for what do they do

mda was famous for the can arm um that that’s their their their glory days and and also they did a lot of shuttle a lot of help they helped a lot in the shuttle program so I got there when I got there I was uh working u on FPGA work and I was doing cameras for them um I did a lot of um integration and testing uh I did f uh hardware that went to sorry hardware to went into space of one of the cameras and I also the the last thing I was there for I was helping out the with uh GSC of the for the camera cameras that for the operations of the Ken M3 um ground support ground uh ground support and also uh test boards um so yeah it was a you know it was a great opportunity i had uh really great mentors there

and and you joined MDA when it was actually quite small

yeah it was small it was like maybe 120 or so before they before they grew so it was uh you know you had close uh uh close connections with your co-workers and your mentors

and how many people roughly is MD now if you if you recall

oh they’re up in the 2000s or more

it goes to show right like everything starts small we talk about MDA um an amazing kind of Canadian story right they built a Canada arm or kind of the the the Canada success story in space from like an engineering business standpoint david joined when there were about 100 people now 2,000 um so you know everything starts small and then it and then it becomes a lot bigger um that’s that’s awesome uh you also worked on some um I guess biotech related things right while you were at MDA

um there was two I worked uh uh with again integration testing with the synaptic arm and that was basically nerve that had a camera and it helped the surgeons um do operations on the spine um so I helped out on that and also the last um I was a electrical lead on um uh this uh bas I guess sorry I keep refer thinking it’s power blades but but it’s micro prep so um everyone know that there knows what it is it’s basically uh it gives astronauts the ability to do uh DNA tests and blood sample tests on station um so you don’t have to have like basically a lab it’s basically a lab on chip and it works with microfluidics so I was the electrical lead on that um uh helping make that happen

that’s so interesting because I I you know if I were to zoom into that a little bit um people a question I don’t really get that as much these days i think people have really started to like dial into just how valuable space is for life on Earth you know our own mission is really to to um to to advance life on Earth from space and um those kinds of innovations uh um you know microfluidics lab on chip type stuff that you first test in space that all comes down to earth and that helps people you know in remote locations or uh or lowincome locations and things like that emergency situations um and it’s really interesting to hear like a space company working on technologies like that and you had a direct impact on it

yeah for sure um yeah like that’s one of the things that that I love about you know doing work in space it’s not it’s not just about uh you know exploring space but it’s also being able to you know advance the technology help advance technologies here on Earth as well

exactly and I think you know like our own Canadian space agency that’s uh something that they really do a lot of as well um you look at some of the projects that they develop and support not just kind of a Canada arm and things like that uh but but projects uh related to you know like uh like like food and agriculture or like medical applications and things like that now obviously we’re really focused right now at Nordspace on getting um stuff to space so that we can actually perform that research and experiments you know support our national security support our environment um support remote communication systems and things like that so let’s now talk a little bit about Nordspace um you spent so just to be clear David was at MDA for over a decade now this is like a really mature company that and you jump head first into an environment that’s like a stark contrast from this like large profession very professional organization to a effectively a startup now I know we do a lot of things that are that are we really punch above our weight um how did you make that decision to this day I still find that fascinating

yeah um again I’ve always uh you know people who know me and like my friends and stuff like that they they always known that um I I kind of have my you know my my own spirit i you know I do what I like and um you know I don’t always often you know follow you know the herd or the curve so I mean you know MDA was great uh opportunity and that’s what it was you know getting the ability to learn from some ventures that were really good in the industry and you know develop your skill set and that’s how I looked at it um and then you know there was the side of me that always loved entrepreneurship and like being able to like help start a company or like start your own company um and again like uh it was something that you know when I heard about what you guys you know Nordspace was you know starting too I’m like ah like that’s awesome you know like there was a lot of you know you MDA is really known for uh for what they’ve done but I always felt we could do more and you know push boundaries more and like you know I I feel our generation needed something different um you know can arm Can Arm is great but I always felt like it was the previous generation’s you know um gold medal and you know I I felt like you know our generation needed you know you know that next level and you know do something for ourselves and and do something really big that will you know in you know engrave our generation in in in you know in history a bit so yeah I wanted to do also some entrepreneurship help build a company not just look at it from you know uh you know you you you know get a certain amount of money and you just spend a little bit and you you know get some money so um yeah I I I took entrepreneurship courses and you know I wanted to take those skill sets that I was you know learning in entrepreneurship course and then apply them you know at work and it just you know that’s what Nordspace provided me and that opportunity and you know I thought it was great uh so so I took it you know dived in head first and yeah it’s something that I wanted to do

that’s awesome we’re so grateful to have you here David i one of the things that I think um uh like you and I really kind of uh synced up on when you first joined Nordspace was um you know I I’ve always said at the end of every presentation that I’ve done and I’ve like it’s our choice as Canada as Canadians do we want to be leaders or do we want to be participants this is this is an active choice you look at all the major space missions including Canada arm um as amazing as these feats are we have always piggybacked and been participants um and we’re capable of so much more i mean with with our GDP with our uh status in the world our history technologically culturally economically we should be leading um and and and we must so maybe just like linger on that for me a little bit participation versus leadership how do you where do you stand on that and why did that kind of resonate with you so much

yeah I guess um I guess that was one of the other major reasons why I joined Nordspace um you know again going back to you know it was great having mentors there was a great opportunity to develop my skills at MDA but there was always that next gear that you know uh personally I wanted to get to um and with a team I wanted to get there but you know that that wasn’t you know the environment or you know it wasn’t a goal that we had there and so at Nordspace I felt that goal was there i felt that spirit was there it’s like hey let’s let’s do the next level thing um you know it’s great that we did this stuff in the past but like what can we do now where can we you know push the boundaries um so that’s where I was coming from and um and

I guess that’s a luxury a company like Nordspace and startups in general can have we can take risks that others can’t um I’m sure there’s larger companies out there that would love to take on an initiative like this but I think when it comes to like building rocket systems right um these are inherently extremely challenging extremely you know on a relative scale they’re risky um financially technically um and that’s something that uh you know people with uh that that are able to kind of accept that risk uh technically financially and in every other way um can go for and if you’ve looked at every kind of rocket program in the past whether it was the Americans or Russians or all the other companies the rocket labs and all they were started by people that were kind of early in their careers still believed in the impossible um and were really willing to pour everything into it now you come to us with a lot of experience i I I I love saying you know we have Dr Hubert we you know we have others on our team from Rocket Lab RFA SpaceX MDA we have a lot of experience on our team from these uh very mature companies um I you know and I always feel like you sort of undersell your experience sometimes you have a lot of experience especially in the electrical and avionic side of things so tell us a little bit about the rocket you know I know we’ve tried to keep things as simple as we can um but also it’s it’s a rocket and it’s complex

yeah I guess it is complex it’s a It’s one of the other reasons why I joined it cuz like I’ve never done rockets and it it’s one of those things that I wanted to ever you know you always wanted to work as a kid you see the rockets flying and I’m like oh I wish I could like you know have an opportunity to to work on rockets i mean it’s great doing robotics for space but again it it goes to the feeling of we’re just kind of participating yeah uh we’re just like always you know oh can you please do this for us and we’ll put a payload it’s like we never kind of be like you know what we want to go on a road trip and we’re going to go here

we’re always piggybacking

yeah so so yeah from the avionics point of view um also from from a technical point of view I wanted to also uh push the boundaries on on how um uh avionics was done for for space applications um I really wanted to go more modular um I know everybody thinks you know in space you have to have custom boards and everything’s custom um but I always felt like there was a you know an area where you know you could have you know little modules that maybe some are off the shelf some are custom made but not too complicated very simple and then you group them together um you know stack them um in layers um like little buildings and you know bu little building blocks you know you have tool kits in your wealth and you know you take some out you configure them a certain way and you get something you know some kind of behavior so that’s kind of like you know my approach that I had for for for Taigga and um I think so far it’s paid off well you know it sure is pretty reliable um I mean there’s always problems I have to fix but like u I’m glad that you know the team has you know has seen that approach and that approach has been pretty successful so far

i think one of the cool things about people with uh you know a lot of experience like you is not only have you seen a lot of things but um you know I’ I’ve noticed that people like you and our team um you know which rules to break which ones to bend and which ones to like follow to the te because you’ve seen it all and that allows you this this flexibility you’re not you know we sometimes we’ll hire junior engineers and they’re so excited about the technical challenge because they’ve never done it before they’ll want to design say a PCB from scratch because it’s new and because they’ve never done it and they want that experience but if it’s something you can acquire or if it’s something that’s a commodity we have a our our mission is so much bigger than any specific subsystem um so I really appreciate your approach where you’re able to figure out because of your experience where we should you know build from scratch and where we shouldn’t

yeah and you know it it takes you’re right it takes that little experience because you know there are a lot of you know off-the-shelf boards you know uh you could buy them everywhere um they all do similar things but you know uh even within this you know you have five boards that do the same thing but they’re slightly designed differently so you need to know which one to pick and which ones to stay away from so I guess that’s where my experience comes in uh I know you know there was a situation where there was you know there was like 10 boards I could pick from but then you know when I looked at the features that I wanted there was only two that I could pick from so um and and again um I guess that does come from experience and um yeah I’m glad that that that helps us

yeah it’s it’s super valuable super valuable well David I I don’t want to hold you back too much um do you have any kind of final thoughts that you’d like to share with people’s you know across Canada in the world that are that are listening to you and are following our mission

yeah I hope you guys you know this you know inspires you um I I know it’s inspiring to me even though I’m on the same team but yeah you know like always you know it’s great to I think it’s it’s it’s good to honor what was done in the past but I I feel you shouldn’t get stuck with that i I feel like you should try to find the next level and and push on that um and you see it a lot in companies um one example is the BlackBerry uh in when I was growing up um I remember seeing them you know they were in their heydays and then you know you you kind of stop dreaming you kind of stop you know trying to find that next gear and then you know somebody else comes by and you know you know you’re you’re you’re left behind so uh you know at Northspace I hope we keep that spirit alive we always want to keep pushing um of course there are times where you have to know slow down you know uh take a temperature check but you know I think it’s about having that spirit of like hey let’s what’s next what else can we do what’s the next big thing that we could do um and not losing that spirit

i totally agree i think in addition to the rocket and the satellites and the robots and everything else that we’re going to be building at Northspace over the coming years um I think the thing I’m most proud of and and and is is working with people like you like our team i and I think we’re building a very unique team here that’ll set a standard for Canada in terms of ambition culture um and just you know just go-getter attitude one of the things I love about being here in Newfaland and one of the reasons we chose it is we felt it right from the start where the default reaction for people here just like our team you know you get an idea that might sound crazy but your your first reaction isn’t to close off and say no it’s to like okay yes let’s figure out how to do this and let’s work the problem not not shut it down and I think we need a lot more of that um and the fact that you’re such a free spirit the fact that you’re so talented um is is one of the most important uh reasons I think that we’re going to be successful as a company and as a country so thank you so much thank you uh for everything you do

awesome all right I’ll get back to that rocket let’s

Let’s do that

when a lot of us think about our nation we think of the beautiful Canadian Rockies the Niagara Falls the Northern Lights a good old game of hockey with friends to kick off the winter a barbecue at the edge of a lake on a long summer night our ancestors and friends who called these lands home for time immemorial our majestic flag and of course the brave men and women who defended it by making the ultimate sacrifice when we think of Canada though this is what we also see a nation when a lot of us think about our nation we think of the beautiful Canadian Rockies the Niagara Falls the Northern Lights a good old game of hockey with friends to kick off the winter a barbecue at the edge of a lake on a long summer night our ancestors and friends who called these lands home for time immemorial our majestic flag and of course the brave men and women who defended it by making the ultimate sacrifice when we think of Canada though this is what we also see a nation without borders as beautiful from space as it is from Earth built by Canadians who have dedicated their entire lives to providing security connectivity information above a nation that built the Canada Arm and made decades of space flight possible a nation with astronauts who commanded the International Space Station and a nation of engineers and scientists who built the most advanced aircraft of its time then went on to landing the first humans on the moon a nation that made Canada the third to send a satellite to space and secure our place among the stars at Nordspace we commit once again to extending these legacies as we build Canada’s future in space by opening access to space from Canadian soil for the first time in our nation’s history by building Sonida we’ll enable everything from predicting and combating wildfires in Alberta to monitoring and protecting whale populations off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador launch will empower our Canadian forces to rapidly respond to threats over our undefended Arctic and grain farmers in Saskatchewan to get precise data to maximize their harvest access to space will unlock billions of dollars of economic growth and thousands of new high-skilled jobs across Canada launch will inspire an entire nation and generations of Canadians to dream bigger

Lakshmanan Velappan transcript

hey Lakshmanan

hey Harold

nice to see you yeah how are you feeling

pretty excited

yeah good day yeah good day beautiful location we’re right at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean rockets at the back things are looking pretty good

yeah very good very good we’re just running through a final checklist

yeah that’s awesome well that’s actually what we have here um in this conversation I pretty heavy 70 pages of check ass that you guys go through every single time so obviously we’re not going to go through every single detail but I wanted to maybe give our uh viewers some idea of just the immense level of detail that we go through but before we do that um can you just maybe briefly introduce yourself tell us you know tell us your name of course but like you know a little bit of your history uh why are you why do you care about rockets uh education some of that kind of stuff that’d be really cool

yeah for sure I’m lon uh so I started working with nordspace 3 years ago so I was the first employee I’m so happy to be part of this uh so now my role is chief propulsion engineer so I majorly work on engines cooling channels and uh heat fluxes anything that combust I’m responsible directly responsible for it I also work with other mechanical engineers on the team i help them in design mechanical structures and uh analysis of mechanical structures so that’s my role here in nordspace my background I start as a mechanical engineer so I used to work with IC engines uh were carbust internal combustion engines uh yeah so uh that’s my background i’ve been uh always interested in aerospace and space as a kid I always wanted to go to space and I still do yeah so um as I moved through mechanical engineering I always liked something that’s burning or propelling towards very fast so uh that kind of directed towards the engine criteria and then um I took my masters in University of Toronto and that’s where I took combustion and aerospace propulsion then Nordspace

that’s awesome it must be pretty magical for you because I remember when so uh Nordspace started we didn’t have an office i interviewed you in a basement cafeteria somewhere um and uh we started blowing stuff up on my porch i still remember that um then we moved into our for us giant facility and it was just the two of us we’re just wa wondering what the heck we got ourselves into it was a massive facility it looked like and there was nothing in there yeah nothing just dust and it was just the two of us uh we had a huge boardroom and just to make it look like it was full we got a giant boardroom table all just for the two of us um crazy times and that was like not even that was like barely 3 years ago now we’re headed towards 25 people on our team some of the most talented engineers and scientists we have a rocket ready to launch we’ve built our own launch site um we’ve acquired all kinds of manufacturing capabilities how does how does it feel

it’s it’s crazy upgrade um honestly I never thought uh how big this is going to be i know it is going to get bigger but as you see it progress uh that’s a that’s a beautiful uh experience and uh especially with the launch site we have a big road we have a pad and we have a rocket now and then uh we have uh more people on the team who are experts in their own fields it’s it’s really crazy and uh very very exciting actually

i think one of the biggest challenges you have is not just designing the rockets but you know one of the things that’s very hard to appreciate especially when you’re designing high performance rockets like if you’re just you know if we’re just talking about like toys where you’re solid rockets or or you know you light it goes but um our margins are so small for everything and not just the technical margins uh you know we as a commercial company uh a lot of us did rockets as students and stuff like that but you know you have budgets we barrels we have timelines we have like and I know you you feel you must feel me breathing down your neck sometimes and I really try not to but still there’s so many like other pressures right when you’re doing this professionally how so how slim are some of the like I I’ve seen you like on the absolute edge and I think one of the things I really admire about you is the confidence you bring to the team when you’re able to make that really hard decision whether to run an engine or not whether to launch or not um can you just give people a sense how slim are the margins when it comes to rockets mass fractions things like that

so uh yeah that’s a very uh deep question so to answer for example I can take Taiga as an example about 5% on the pressure uh would just spoil the entire mission both on fuel or liquid oxygen pressure so just 5% on the pressure difference would uh would cause a lot of combustion instabilities and uh cooling problems and everything uh the same goes with every single thing across the systems um we have multiple actuation techniques for valves we have cooling across the channels we have injection velocities so all of these things have their own margins but uh the thing that is not completely intuitive is that these margins add up so let’s say uh specifically for the fuel pressure it might seem 5% but in in real life it’s not 5% because it has been added up on other uh tolerances like uh injection velocities and injection injection pressure difference and uh at the end of the day you’re just looking at I can I can throw in some numbers but we’re looking at 0.05 megapascal pressure difference and that will screw our mission over so that’s that’s our margins uh with just pressure and technical things

that’s wild yeah i mean like suppose we were to like I How take Taiga for example how thin are the walls uh of our tank order of magnitude i know we don’t want to get into too many specifics but um

I can give an interesting uh comparison so uh if we hit the tanks hard enough we might be able to bend it and these are uh Inconel tanks that we’re talking about which are superized they’re called superoy for a reason they they are two times the strength of steel uh on a on a normal and can also 18 whereas uh they’re three times as stronger if they’re heat treated and uh so but I don’t want to get into the exact well

what I was getting at is what happens if you were to increase the the thickness by like 5% right mass increases so it’s like okay if you need the same form factor then you need more you need a a a beefier engine and if you need that then you need more pressure you need more fuel that increases other the the chain reaction of the smallest thing

exactly so uh even like even not increasing even just u replacing few items in different spots will completely differ the mission there are a few components which might be heavier and we want to place it in the right uh orientation orientation as well as right position uh which changes the mission uh criteria

the precision is uh unbelievable and I think that’s one of the reasons this mission uh is so important because it’s you know we’re doing everything we can to almost it’s it’s a really critical step for orbital because it allows us to go into uh some in some cases even greater detail than we may in orbital because our margins are slimmer you know um with with a suborbital flight um uh but we’re we’re we’re trying to scale everything up to orbital the so including our procedures I think one of the most important things that we we’ve learned and we’re learning is how do you manage an operation for a professionally built uh liquid rocket system so what I’m holding right now is basically a binder of 70 pages um our team goes through this every single time we set up so they were here this morning we were here at uh you know 3:00 a.m and we go through hours of detailed checklists again this isn’t just about like inserting a rocket motor into a shell and like and and lighting it um there’s a lot that goes into this so of course we can’t go through all of that not only do we not have the time but a lot of it I know is very pri uh proprietary but maybe I’ll just flip through some parts of this and I’d love for you to give me some insight uh into things that you think are important um so again 70 pages it’s it’s a lot um even things down to like uh you know our communication protocols so um you know tell us a little bit about that like we’re when we started I I remember when we started we were just kind of like uh back in the day when you know two years ago we were just kind of like yelling at each other yes and now it’s like a very precise way of communication why is precise communication so important to a launch campaign like this

any any mis information or any uh changes in the system should be known across the board so in the in this case any mis miscommunication in terms of wiring or in terms of valves that causes a large issue when it is not traceable that becomes a bigger problem so every single communication goes through the protocol and it is being recorded in such a way that we can trace it back in case there’s any issue

right right yeah um super important um so let’s talk a little bit about uh range procedures so we cover things in this checklist like um uh range layout distances safety uh you know sight safety ballistic you know hazards weather monitoring um and you get into a lot of detail into all of this but tell us a little bit about range procedures and and why this is important

so uh uh on the pad we’re storing propuls and uh we want to make sure everyone is safe everything is operated safely uh for example we can there’s different procedures that we have to go through um on a on a higher level we bring the rocket down uh we fill up fuel u make sure that the pad and the range is safe uh just in case if there’s any public uh in our range within uh within the explosive diameter or within our dispersion rate uh we have to stop the launch we have to figure out what the problem is so that’s our general way of operation and then once the pad is yellow when the pad is yellow what we mean is that the propellants are getting filled up so during that time uh we don’t want anyone near the pad except for the launch technicians so they do all the setup and once they are out the pad becomes red so pad becomes red meaning uh no one goes near to the rocket because the rocket has uh igniters on the rocket has oxidizer as well as fuel on so it is a potentially a launchable rocket at that point so we don’t want anyone in the pad so we do the drone scouts we do road control we So as an as the mission control officer we should make sure that anyone who’s on the pad who’s out of the pad and anyone who is on the uh less than 300 meters into the site so we keep track of everything we keep track of the me members of our team as well as members who are from outside our team uh for example the fire department um transport Canada so uh people external stakeholders we also maintain the list of people who are within our uh parimeter uh just to make sure that everything is operated safely and uh that is also traceable across

awesome um I see a couple different roles here first we have launch director we have range safety officer mission control officer chief technician launch technician one two three avionics one two software all all kinds of roles um and and you are which one listen

I’m mission control officer

awesome so you’re one of the two people uh Hubert who we also uh uh have a great chat with um in mission control that’s correct how does it feel being in mission control

it is I mean it is exciting as well as stressful at the same time right uh so I’d be lying if I if it’s not stressful uh so we are controlling all the valves we’re monitoring the pressures temperatures so uh we have to be very keen very silent

um yeah yeah yeah that’s awesome um to skip through a couple things but I I just want to there’s a lot of precise numbers uh in everything you know like for example um safety clear zones being like um you know x number of meters um down to the meter so I know you’ve all done a huge amount of math uh calculation simulations using industry standard tools professional tools for orbital rockets and all of that how important has it been to learn every little detail that’ll scale up to an orbital mission um around you know um site safety uh safe distances uh explos explosive radiuses

uh it has been the major learning from this uh launch campaign for us uh because we have tested everything in our test uh test site and uh we have mostly our internal people we maintain the safety regulations which are required for that site uh at this point uh we’re dealing with dispersion rates explosion rates and we’re storing propellants here on the pad and uh the launch pads radius so everything matters here and uh the good thing is we have regulations for every single thing uh which is based out of FAS regulations so we keep track of uh you know every single kilogram of fuel that we have on a pad that will translate into down to the meter for the explosive distance so uh that’s the major learning and also uh by doing the research on that we can we can see how this whole explos explosive radius everything scales up for for orbital since we have our orbital sizing we know exactly how much fuel or how much propulance that we’ll be storing in a orbital launch site so uh while we do this calculation we we also make sure that oh our current site is it capable of handling an orbital rocket is it capable of handling the bigger orbital rocket so uh that’s that’s been our major pushing uh on on this launch campaign and uh we’re glad actually that we got to do those calculations because these are these are more regulatory uh calculations which as a technical person you wouldn’t be much involved in it so these are these are new things

i think that’s what probably one of the biggest things you know our engine our team is almost entirely engineers uh like I said you know we’ve built rockets obviously nothing like this one technically but also we’ve never had to worry about you know making sure that people who want to go fishing are safe and people that want to fly over crossing from Europe the Atlantic to come to Canada are safe um to make sure that our own staff are are safe you know I noticed you have cryogenic uh safety gear here um and all kinds of other things fuel storage and all this so there’s just so much to consider and I’m I’m really happy to see all of this because obviously all scales up to us uh for us as we as we go to orbital let’s talk a little bit about the rocket integration checklist so section 10 here um very uh interesting flow diagram um just how important is is is this in order for us to be ready to launch uh the rocket integration checklist

so the rocket integration checklist has major uh components including uh the mechanical structures as well as uh the flow control devices so every time that we move the rocket there is a chance that some of these fasteners might come loose so we want to check every single fasteners across the rocket just to throw rough numbers just on the engine bay we have more than 100 fasteners so uh that’s the checklist that’s that’s why it gets more details in them and we check every single uh bolt and nut across the rocket

yeah yeah i see like intertank each intertank has its own integration checklist each you know the engine bay has its own avionics bay brieflight integration launch rail assembly and these are like each of them has like dozens of items

so in this as we know this is about 70 page document but there are few u systems which actually track into another document which has like another so

yeah yeah that’s not easy but um you know checklists are just so valuable uh and and it’s an iterative process as well I see that um just this document alone has I can’t even count how many revisions because you go through the process and every time you go through you learn something new you see that you might have forgotten something and you insert it into the checklist every single detail matters

exactly so there uh there are a few things that we would like to improve to speed up the process uh so that’s a revision on the other hand there are a few things that we would have genuinely missed so those are additions and new revisions that come out

awesome wow yeah so I you know I’m scrolling on my phone just to make it a little bit easier but um I’m still scrolling and going through a checklist launch procedure this sounds exciting so uh you know tell us a little bit about this you know we have uh checklists related to launch readiness GSC integration health checks rocket health checks you know fuel fill uh uh launch rail integration launch rail raising pressure and fill up oxidizer fillup all the ignite just so many things so um what’s this whole section about

the that’s a step-by-step procedure uh once everyone is on the pad uh we need uh most of us here on the pad to get the rocket ready so the health checks are required uh are required for all the flow control devices all the mechanical structures uh as well as electronics avionics uh and any uh GPS devices that we have on the rocket so everything goes through each of these checklists the the checklist which we saw previously uh they are before the rocket’s on the pad now the the launch procedure mandates everything to be checked one once again on the pad before we slide in into the rail so uh uh that includes all the pre-check processes and rehealth check and then we move on to lifting the rail rail also is a completely separate beast because it has to it’s its own engineering system it’s it’s its own thing exactly so we have a separate checklist for all the fasteners on the rail make sure all the actuation systems are working on the rail and uh once the rocket is lifted um most of us will be going back to the mission control except for the launch technicians and LD launch director and RSO so these guys will be here to make sure all the propellants can be loaded they’re doing all the preparations there so launch procedure includes the safety uh systems uh that are in place and that will tell them where it is so it will point them in the right direction and also it reduces the amount of thinking that you have to do on a pad itself u you just go through the checklist step by step and each of each of the step the step are sequential so so that’s the pad uh criteria then once the pad is clear once the pad is read uh every single thing that you mentioned just now like locks filling brushion filling everything will be done from the machine control so the whole point of this procedure uh being that strict is that uh once we are all in the mission control no one is on the pad and we have to be sure that we we get the maximum control on the rocket uh both for launch as well as for safing the system

awesome well um you know safing the system that’s an important thing so we obviously had uh one single basically attempt um in August to launch unfortunately the hurricane and just you know like literally teething issues like we’re learning uh along we go as as we go along the way um including all the people around us stakeholders from you know the local community to the uh regulators and all of that this is this is new in a lot of ways for Canada commercially i mean it it’s it it’s a whole different beast um and then on the safing side of things you know we had our safety system kick in um you know we’re obviously like ah we could have got that launch but it’s okay um uh you know any any any launch attempt where the rocket’s safe people are safe that’s success in in our minds um but uh you know I’m going to I’m going to skip through a lot of things i don’t I know you have to get back to the pad um mishap procedures obviously we never want mishaps to happen but this is something that you really plan for i can see a ton of detail here as well um and you know this is this is literally rocket science things can happen and and uh so we want to be prepared for it how important is it for everyone to understand these mishap procedures

so we’ve gone through different uh different ways of uh mishaps that might happen for a rocket as well as launchpad as well as for the public so we we keep intense amount of details and strict rules for amount of storage uh fuel storage or how we operate even tiniest thing like the fabric that we use uh on a launch day it has to be non-inflammable cotton based uh so things like that we keep strict regulations on those and uh any mishap we also have uh so I know

I’ve heard sorry to interrupt you don’t even want people to wear uh electronic watches the record oxygen cuz you’re worried that it can it can spark

if it is not intrinsically safe we don’t use them near both our fuel as well as liquid oxygen so uh we have safety distances so we have uh one we have a buddy system mostly when we work uh so the other person will be in a safe distance making sure all the works are done safely so these are all pad works and then uh once we’re in the mission control most of the things are automated so we have uh safety sequences and shut off sequences which will safely uh relieve the pressures on the locket we also have uh methods to safe the rocket when we lose complete control on the mission control too so there are few analog mechanical systems that will make sure that the rocket’s not fully pressurized it it keep it evaporates uh all the liquid oxygen and keeps the rocket completely safe so uh and um in spite of all these things we also have muster points we also have uh pathways where people have to exit through in case of an emergency we have multiple fire extinguishers across the site and we have the fire department we got the fire department too

there’s a lot that goes into this for sure and I and and this isn’t just something that you guys review at the pad i’ve seen you late nights kind of going through um readings with everybody around the room um and and like just talking through it kind of like actors they go through a script before and and so there’s just so much preparation but this is what’s required i mean if we’re serious about doing this as a company as a country um and we we are um we have to do it right uh we have to make the right design decisions you know that’s why we chose the propellants that we did you know that’s why we chose uh you know liquid propulsion that’s why we chose the architecture the payload masses and everything to be competitive to you know you look at the US you look at countries that are really like they’ve been doing this for a long time we’re following in their footsteps we’re choosing to be innovative in the right places um and and choosing to to follow standard procedures uh where you know it’s already been done um so uh so I’m really proud proud of you uh Lakshmanan and uh I’m really proud of the team anything you want to say um finally before I let you go

oh thank thanks for this opportunity it’s really really been exciting both for this interview as was for whole nordspace i’ve got great experience so far and uh we’re all excited to go for orbital immediately after this launch

i know you’ve been itching to work on those turbo pumps and and the larger engines and all of that uh we’re we’re just days away now congratulations Lakshmanan for everything