After several hours of driving and singing the lyrics to Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life,” we reached a snow-covered trail that tested the limits of our rented van.
We were in the Canadian wilderness, much too far from caffeine and bathrooms, on a particularly important adventure. Not only was this my first international shoot for Core Memory, but this was also the day I’d see my first rocket engine test. I had high expectations. There would be the smell of rocket fuel, the earth would rumble under my snow boots, and my eyebrows would get singed off my face, hopefully on camera.
Our videographer Camen (who you might remember from “The Missing Frozen Fish Fortune”) piloted us through the pine trees while I suited up in my gear for the day — fleece-lined pants, cheap mittens from the gas station, and a jacket I stole off the back of our other cameraman Armaan (who you might remember from “Micturating On A Commune”). It looked cooler on me, sorry!
The trail opened up and revealed our destination: Area 66, home to a Canadian rocket startup called NordSpace. The icy terrain contained two shipping containers, nitrogen tanks, and an engine on a horizontal teststand. There to guide us was NordSpace CEO Rahul Goel, donning a blaze-orange jacket meant to ward off hunters in the area.
This property, plus a small office just outside Toronto, and about thirty engineers is what makes up NordSpace. It’s humble, it’s simple, it’s all Goel ever wished for.
