PORTLAND, Maine — Representatives of a Maine company that plans to send small satellites into space from the Northeast’s most rural state said they will begin launches next year.
Brunswick-based bluShift Aerospace hopes to make Maine a hub for launching commercial nanosatellites and has been making progress toward that goal for more than three years. A successful recent fundraising round means a commercial suborbital launch is on track to launch in 2025, company officials said Tuesday.
The small satellite market is currently dependent on large companies, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, for the deployment of satellites, and that leads to long waiting times, says bluShift CEO and founder Sascha Deri. Launching small satellites from Maine could change that, Deri said.
“We see a huge need for dedicated satellite deliveries with small lifts in space,” Deri said, adding that customers are seeking “fast, affordable access to space and direct delivery to their desired orbit.”
The company’s progress in launching small satellites comes at a time of tremendous growth in the industry, company representatives said.
The concept of small satellites was essentially an academic exercise two decades ago, and the technology has since become one of the fastest growing in the satellite industry, bluShift representatives said. The global market for a class of small satellites called CubeSats was valued at $210 million in 2021 and is expected to be worth more than four times that by 2030, the company said.
bluShift plans to use a pre-existing spaceport for its first launches and begin using Maine’s rural, remote coastline as a launch headquarters as early as 2026, company officials said. The company said it thinks the rural coast is a good location because it offers launch capabilities over the Atlantic Ocean, directly into a polar orbit, with little interference.
Company launched a 20-foot-long prototype rocket to an altitude of more than 4,000 feet during its first test run in 2021. The rocket simulated a small payload by carrying stroopwafels, Dutch cookies.
bluShift also said Tuesday that Brady Brim-DeForest, managing partner at Houston-based Late Stage Capital, will become chairman of the board. Brim-DeForest said using non-toxic biofuel and reusable rockets will help in his mission to democratize access to space.