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In January 2021, bluShift Aerospace launched a prototype rocket, called Stardust 1.0, from Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone. Now the company is looking to perform its initial launch of Starless Rogue from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Brunswick rocket-maker bluShift Aerospace said Tuesday it is ending its months-long effort to secure a site near Jonesport for commercial launches, and instead hopes to lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“We are setting our sights on Florida for our first commercial suborbital launch to space,” bluShift’s CEO and founder, Sascha Deri, said in a news release.
The Starless Rogue rocket is expected to launch in late 2022 using the company’s proprietary nontoxic, biologically derived fuel.
Deri said that while Starless Rogue's first flight may begin on Merritt Island, Fla., bluShift will continue to pursue long-term suborbital and orbital launch opportunities in its home state.
“We have been in communications with folks from Kennedy Space Center since they reached out to us shortly after the launch of Stardust 1.0 from Limestone in January of 2021,” he told Mainebiz. “They had just wrapped up construction of a new launch pad, LC48, specifically designed for small rockets.”
At the time, the thought was to expand launch operations at Kennedy several years down the line, he said. But conversations with Kennedy resumed in the last few months, and it emerged as a fall-back until bluShift secures a Maine site and receives licensing for it from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We're under a tight, self-imposed deadline to get a full-commercial, revenue-generating launch all the way to space within the next year,” Deri added. “We are aiming to become a NASA Flight Opportunities flight provider with this maiden launch of Starless Rogue.”
Securing access to launch from Kennedy’s LC48 requires bluShift to work on fulfilling certain requirements specific to launching from Kennedy, as well as securing a launch operator's license from the FAA and developing mobile ground operations to support a launch in Florida.
“Our expectations are that all of these will take from six to 12 months, and, as a result, we need to pivot now,” he said.
The pivot to Kennedy for Starless Rogue’s initial launch doesn’t change bluShift's long-term plans for Maine, he repeated.
“We remain committed to developing our sustainable space launch technologies, ramping up our manufacturing and launching here in Maine,” he said. “Disconnecting the dependency of the first launch of Starless Rogue from having to be in Maine takes off some of the pressure and reduces how much we need to work in parallel to get to commercial viability.”
Would launching from Kennedy require any logistical considerations?
“With the exception of a very long drive, a few extra days of launch operations activities for both our personnel, the rocket, the mobile launch rail system, and ground support containers, the logistics would be similar to our first couple of launches we would expect to have here in Maine,” said Deri. “At this time, we do not expect to hire additional personnel in Florida to support launch operations.”
Meanwhile, the site search in Maine will continue.
“As we prepare for this critical next flight in Florida, we will continue efforts to find a Maine community or township that wants to welcome as many as 200 new jobs and the distinction that will come from hosting a green aerospace company,” he said.
In December, in response to bluShift’s interest in establishing a launch site on an island off the Jonesport coast, local residents voted to put a six-month moratorium on aerospace activities, due to concerns including impacts to fishing and the environment.
The company, headquartered at Brunswick Landing, offered various responses to deal with the concerns.
“Jonesport presented many unforeseen challenges, particularly when it came to the flow of accurate information,” continued Deri. “The good news is that we learned a lot about what it will take to work in harmony with a Maine community, whether it be on the Downeast coast or in northern Maine.”
The fuel production, test site and launchpad for bluShift's rockets are designed to be entirely solar-powered, and bluShift has said it will reuse nearly 100% of its suborbital rockets and 70% of its orbital ones.
The company has been contacted by officials in northern Maine and other communities, he said.
Deri added that he feels confident bluShift can add significant economic and intellectual capital to a Maine community without causing environmental harm.
“No matter where we launch from, bluShift will manufacture its rockets here in our home state,” he said. “But we can do more good, create more jobs, and keep even more STEM grads at home and bring even more money into the state by launching our rockets here too.”
The announcement came days after bluShift conducted the first static-fire test of its commercial-scale biofueled rocket engine, called the Modular Adaptable Rocket Engine for Vehicle Launch, or MAREVL 2.0.
The engine reached a peak thrust of 3.9 tons for 5 seconds.
Future tests will aim to produce about four time that amount of thrust for 85 seconds, enough to send Starless Rogue soaring to heights of 220-250 miles.
Deri said the company is also working to join a group of much larger launch providers, including Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, to qualify as a flight provider for the NASA Flight Opportunities Program by early 2023.
The program is designed to facilitate the purchase of commercial suborbital flight services to test and demonstrate promising space-based technologies, according to the release. Awardees receive a grant or enter into a cost-share agreement, through which they can select a commercial flight provider that meets their needs.
After the launch of Starless Rogue, bluShift hopes to get an orbital rocket, Red Dwarf, off the ground. That larger craft would ultimately deliver small satellites to polar orbit.
On Jan. 31, 2021, bluShift launched a prototype rocket, the first commercial-type rocket powered by bioderived fuel, from Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone.
Unfortunately, we seem to have become a state without appetite for the future. We are all too happy to use the satellites launched from elsewhere but when a Maine company wants to play in the same business, we turn up our noses. That translates into significant lost job opportunities, and with it, revenues Maine dearly needs to become even close to being economically self-sufficient.
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