Brunswick rocket-maker exceeds crowdfunding goal, continues search for Downeast site
COURTESY / BLUSHIFT AEROSPACE
BluShift Aerospace last month completed its first successful static-fire test of its full-scale biofueled rocket engine.
A rocket-maker in Brunswick, bluShift Aerospace, said it has exceeded its year-long crowdfunding goal by $20,000. The company, based at Brunswick Landing, raised $1.09 million through nearly 1,300 investors.
The goal was $1.07 million.
The campaign launched in March 2021 and ended at midnight on April 4, adding another $100,000 of investment over its final days.
Twenty-three percent of investors were from Maine, accounting for one-third of all dollars invested.
“This allows us to immediately begin work on our fuselage design and cutting-edge telemetry system; conduct more engine testing for our suborbital rocket, Starless Rogue; and finalize our FAA licensing,” Sascha Deri, CEO and founder of bluShift Aerospace, said in a news release.
The campaign was conducted on Wefunder — which calls itself a “new kind of stock market” meant for startups and small businesses — and was viewed as an opportunity for a wide range of investors to invest amounts as small as $100.
Deri has departed for the Downeast region to explore potential locations for a manufacturing facility and launch site that’s expected to employ between 150 to 200 people.
The company’s engineers are finalizing a full-scale MAREVL engine (Modular Adaptable Rocket Engine for Vehicle Launch).
Last month, the company conducted a successful first burn of the MAREVL engine, which uses a proprietary bio-derived fuel.
When completed, Starless Rogue will become the first rocket in the world capable of propelling over 60 pounds of customer payloads into space using near carbon-neutral, nontoxic, bio-derived fuel, according to the release.
“All engine tests and rocket launches in the future will be treated like full-blown events and covered via livestream,” said Deri.
After setbacks in its proposition to set up a launch site on an island off Jonesport, bluShift last month said it would launch its first flight of its commercial suborbital rocket, Starless Rogue, at Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Fla., while continuing to pursue long-term suborbital and orbital launch opportunities in Maine.
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