Documenting a launch that made history

When Space Concordia’s Starsailor rocket lifted off from northern Quebec at dawn on August 15, 2025, cheers echoed across the launch site — and through the lens of Gabriel Dupras, BFA 21.

For seven years, the filmmaker has been embedded with Space Concordia, capturing its ambition to achieve what no other student group had attempted: to design, build and launch a liquid-fuel rocket capable of reaching space. His crowdfunded documentary, 6 Months to Launch: An Underdog’s Journey Toward Space, tells that story from the inside.

“What struck me most was how shared this moment became,” Dupras says. “It wasn’t just a launch — it was about connection, learning and belief in what young people can achieve.”

The feature-length film traces the team’s journey from early designs at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science to liftoff near the Cree community of Mistissini. Along the way, Dupras documents long nights of testing, setbacks and the resolve of students united by a shared goal.

While most members of Space Concordia are engineering students, the group brings together talent from across disciplines — including from the John Molson School of Business.

As a design student at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Dupras encountered Space Concordia almost by chance while searching for a subject for a major term project.

“I saw an info booth on campus and I was like, ‘Concordia does space stuff? What?’” he recalls.

After visiting the team’s workspace, he asked, “‘Who’s documenting all of this? Who’s covering your activities?’” When he was told no one, he made a promise: “‘From now on, it’s me.’”

Starsailor measures nearly 13 metres and generates 35 kilonewtons of thrust — making it the most powerful student-built rocket ever launched, according to Transport Canada. Its mission represents several firsts: it is the first student-built liquid-fuel rocket to attempt reaching space, the first space launch from Canadian soil in more than 25 years and the first such achievement by a university team.

Support from donors including Lorne Trottier, DSc 18, and the Trottier Family Foundation, as well as Concordia Chancellor Gina Cody, MEng 81, PhD 89, has been instrumental, helping Space Concordia’s Rocketry Division reach such milestones as a record-setting engine test in 2021.

A front-row seat to history

Capturing Starsailor’s launch required extraordinary planning and improvisation, says Dupras.

“I had to make the ultimate sacrifice,” he jokes. “I didn’t see the actual rocket launch with my own eyes because I had to film [Program Lead] Oleg Khalimonov and [Head of Engineering] Henri Massicotte’s reactions. My back had to be to the rocket.”

Dupras and his small crew spent nearly a month at the remote site, navigating no electricity, no cell reception and improvised accommodations and water supplies, all while documenting every moment of the mission.

Importantly, the film also explores the collaboration between Space Concordia and the Cree Nation of Mistissini.

Dupras praises the community’s generosity: “They were so excited about the project. A lot of people helped us, from moving shipping containers to lending equipment and sharing meals. As the land owners, they made this all possible.”

To help bring the story to life on screen, Dupras launched a Kickstarter campaign that surpassed its initial goal of $10,000, raising an impressive total of $15,000. The funds were used to cover equipment and crew costs, and the filmmaker now seeks additional financing to support post-production and editing.

Ultimately, says Dupras, 6 Months to Launch will capture not only a historic student mission, but also a moment of optimism — one rooted in Concordia’s culture of collaboration and curiosity.

And his documenting is far from done. Dupras continues to follow Space Concordia closely.

“I could keep filming forever,” he says. “There’s a lot of things coming from the team — with new developments in the months ahead that I want to get into the finished film.”