The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday, Aug. 4, edition that a Toronto-based space-launch start-up is racing to show that it can make rockets that could one day rival those of Elon Musk's SpaceX as businesses around the world scramble to hitch a ride to orbit amid a crunch in space launch access. The Post's Yvonne Lau writes that Canada Rocket Company (CRC) is developing a medium-lift launch vehicle powered by methane and liquid oxygen capable of taking a 12,000 kilogram payload into low-earth orbit, a strategy that it hopes will make it the Canadian alternative to Spacex's Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 has long been the primary carrier of medium-lift payloads, but has stopped taking launch bookings past 2028 as Spacex focuses on its next-generation Starship rocket. CRC launched this January with a $6.2-million seed round in tow, and has since raised a total of $22.5-million from mostly Canadian investors with more on the way. CRC founder Hugh Kolias says: "There's been a ton of investor interest at home and abroad specifically because of the global shortage. Everyone sees it coming." CRC has started recruiting technical talent from Spacex, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and Europe's Arianegroup Holding.