Photo / Courtesy bluShift Aerospace
bluShift conducted a “full-duration hot fire test” Thursday evening. Seen here is a similar test performed in September.
Updated: October 25, 2024
Ukrainian space startup will launch manufacturing in Brunswick
Photo / Courtesy, Maine Space Conference
The Maine Space Conference is tackling a diverse array of topics this week. Seen here is a session on navigating space-related policy and risk.
A Ukrainian startup that makes small rockets for space flight is making arrangements to move its manufacturing operation to TechPlace at Brunswick Landing.
Terry Shehata, executive director of the Maine Space Grant Consortium, announced the coming arrival of Promin Aerospace.
“They reached out to us,” Shehata said during the Maine Space Conference that's in progress this week. “They made a commitment to come to Maine. They signed the paperwork. We expect them to be here in November.”
Promin is in the process of hiring senior and mid-level engineers, he added.
Shehata said Promin was attracted to Maine in part because of the presence of two other small launch vehicle startups, VALT Enterprises in Presque Isle and bluShift Aerospace in Brunswick, and also and because of the nascent development of a Maine Space Complex.
The announcement was part of three days packed with a diverse array of topics, from satellites to life beyond Earth, next-gen spaceports and space tourism.
The second Maine Space Conference began Oct. 23 and winds up today, Oct. 25.
Themed “Building Relationships,” keynote speakers, 24 panel discussions and a pitch competition are exploring opportunities for Maine's growing space sector.
This year’s conference drew 263 attendees. Speakers and attendees came from industries including aerospace, manufacturing, academia, state and federal government, bioscience, finance, space law, space tourism, space research, manufacturing and construction.
Appropriately, bluShift performed an engine test Thursday evening on its path to build a launch vehicle for small satellites (see sidebar).
Aerospace infrastructure
Maine’s suitability to New Space industries includes the redevelopment of former military installations in Brunswick and Limestone.
Both have substantial infrastructure attractive to aerospace industries, said Jake Levesque, director of innovation and development at the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which has mostly completed the redevelopment of the former Naval Air Station Brunswick, now called Brunswick Landing.
The 3,200-acre former Navy airbase closed in 2011. Since then, redevelopment ha generated over 2,800 jobs, over 150 businesses and other entities and over 500 units of housing.
Investment has been $207 million. The Landing is at 97% capacity, said Levesque. Aerospace is one part of a diverse array of industries.
“I have to turn down one or two companies per week looking for hangar space,” he said.
Aerospace companies there include bluShift, Concorde Aerospace, the University of Maine Augusta’s Unmanned Aircraft School, Greisen Aerospace, Teledyne, which is an anchor tenant for the Maine Space Complex, and the Maine Space Corp.
A plan is underway to create “TechPlace 2.0,” he said, which would be a facility for companies that have outgrown the existing TechPlace but still want shared facilities.
The former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone is on a similar trajectory but in an earlier stage, said Jonathan Judkins, president and CEO of the Loring Development Authority, tasked with the base’s redevelopment.
Key aerospace assets at Loring include its 2.5-mile runway and hangar space ranging from 5,000 to 150,000 square feet. The runway is uniquely situated for horizontal launch, considered a promising subset of the market as far as satellite launches, he said.
There’s a jet engine rebuild facility and a test cell that’s “in remarkable shape,” he said. An engine test is scheduled for February 2025.
Discussions are underway with the Federal Aviation Administration to designate Loring as part of FAA’s National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, he said.
Loring’s first master developer, Green 4 Maine, was recently brought on and acquired 450 acres of the property with around 40 commercial and industrial tenants and plans to bring in more.
Plans are underway to develop housing and to improve infrastructure such as roads and the sewer system, he said. And an energy assessment of campus-wide needs is anticipated for completion on Oct. 31.
“We’ll continue to do our best to develop the land we have,” he said.
Tourism and dark skies
Another panel discussed whether Maine could develop a space tourism industry by leveraging natural assets like the Katahdin Woods and Waters and the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine Woods International Dark Sky Parks.
Maine has the darkest skies on the East Coast, which can be an attraction for tourists, said panelists.
A Maine Space Complex could also be a tourist attraction, with features such as bluShift’s plans to build a launch site off Steuben in Washington County, as well as observatories and research and education centers related to the aerospace industry.
“There’s an incredible opportunity for us to drive interest in rocket launches,” and the tourism aspect goes beyond viewing to local hospitality offerings, said Sascha Deri, founder of bluShift.
Rob Burgess, a “solar system ambassador” for NASA and president of the Southern Maine Astronomers, said the growing prevalence of satellites could pose a threat to the maintenance of dark skies.
“We have the capability to put up satellites, but we need to balance that with people’s ability to enjoy the night sky,” Burgess said.
He added, “Without good, cooperative international agreements, I think we’ll see more disruptions before we see a lessening of satellites.”
Burgess said that, according to statistics, 80% of Americans have never seen the Milky Way and will not see it based on the increase in light pollution.
“A huge part of what made us human is being lost to light pollution,” said Burgess. “The ability of people to look up and experience that sense of awe is rapidly disappearing from our culture. It think it’s really important that we try to maintain that.”
He added, “We live within a day’s drive of tens of million of people who can’t see the Milky Way. So just coming for the experience of a dark sky will be a draw to bring people to our state.”
BluShift engine test
Brunswick aerospace startup bluShift Aerospace conducted its latest engine test Thursday evening at Brunswick Landing.
BluShift is the first company in the world to build a rocket engine that runs entirely on a nontoxic, bio-derived solid fuel.
The company conducted a “full-duration hot fire test” of its proprietary full-scale Modular Adaptable Rocket Engine for Vehicle Launch, or MAREVL, rocket engine, as the company prepares to use the engine to launch a rocket into a suborbital launch.
The test followed a similar one in September, when the company achieved a full-duration burn of 63 seconds.
Successful test completions mean that the engine is powerful enough to propel Starless Rogue, a suborbital vehicle, all the way to space.
This week’s test ran out of fuel prematurely, Deri said. Overall, the tests yield a large and complex collection of data, including thrust, stability, heat, vibration and pressure, to be analyzed to further refine the engine.
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