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During a ribbon cutting ceremony March 16, Canadian corporation C6 Launch Systems unveiled its launch system and a new rocket engine test stand at Spaceport America’s vertical launch area.
This is not the first visit to Spaceport America for C6 Director of Structures Sadben Khan. He was the co-captain and structures lead for the Ryerson Rocketry team at Spaceport America Cup in 2017. He designed and built the entire airframe. The Ryerson team placed 2nd in the 30k ft competition.
Khan said his experience in the Spaceport America Cup taught him a lot of valuable engineering skills. People learn a lot more from hands-on work and experience with rockets than sitting in a classroom with books, he said.
“My grad school position was related directly to the results of the competition,” he said. “I managed to get a lot of internships and a lot of jobs and research positions.”
Kahn, Resident Engineering Vice-president Daniel McCammon and Director of Avionics Tayo Shonibare are co-founders of C6 Launch Systems.
“All those years ago, I would have never thought we would be standing with this equipment ready to go – firing a rocket engine,” Kahn said. “It’s just surreal to be here.”
C6 Launch is based in Ontario with offices in Toronto. The company brings a new launch capacity to the market for small satellite payloads up to 30 kilograms. This means the game changers, first movers and those with urgent operational requirements can deploy “smallsats” where they want, when they want, according to a C6 press release.
With the permission of Spaceport America, C6 Launch contracted Highland Enterprises of Las Cruces to build a vertical test stand for static-engine integration testing (SEIT). The flexible design of the stand supports several different engine sizes. The stand will remain at Spaceport America for future use by C6 Launch and others. In the end, C6 Launch will have contributed $200,000 to the local New Mexico economy, $450,000 to the Colorado economy (where the engine is made), and more than $400,000 to the Ontario economy.
“The tests will confirm operation of the C6 internal systems by conducting a hot-fire test of the Hadley engine from Ursa Major” said Richard McCammon, president of C6 Launch Systems. “This test will be the first of many Hadley engines that C6 intends to use in the quest for space.”
