Rahul Goel graduated from Engineering Science with a major in Aerospace Engineering and founded his first company, PheedLoop, an event-management business, with help from The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, U of T Engineering's startup incubator. Seeing Canadian space talent leave for opportunities elsewhere, he founded NordSpace in 2022 in pursuit of a sovereign Canadian space program.
His small, fully self-funded team built the rocket Taiga in under a year; an earlier launch attempt last fall was delayed by a problem with its cryogenic propellants. NordSpace is also developing larger rockets, the orbital vehicle Tundra and Titan, and plans its first satellite launch next year.
Goel is pursuing a PhD at UTIAS under Professor Jonathan Kelly, and credits mentor Joseph Orozco, executive director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, among his early influences. "My anchor was always space because it was cool and unexplored," he says, preparing now for Taiga's first suborbital flight from NordSpace's spaceport in Newfoundland.
Reported from Engineering grad Rahul Goel prepares for Canada’s first-ever commercial rocket launch, by Samantha Younan (U of T Alumni News, February 24, 2026).
More from the original reporting: alumni.utoronto.ca/news/engineering-grad-rahul-goel-prepares-canadas-first-ever-commercial-rocket-launch