MONTREAL — Students at Concordia University in Montreal have pulled off what they're calling the first attempted space launch in Canada this century.

Early Friday morning, they launched a rocket from a remote site in northern Quebec, the culmination of a project seven years in the making.

"We're trying to prove that students can also do hard things," said Simon Randy, president of student group Space Concordia. "It's not just companies or large government organizations. It's really people who have the drive and the grit to work on these large projects."

Starsailor, a 13-metre liquid-fuel rocket, took off just after 5:30 a.m., though the launch didn't go exactly as planned. Randy said the rocket split into pieces shortly after taking off and did not reach space. The goal had been to laun

See Full Page