Brunswick Rocket Company fundraiser takes off

BluShift Aerospacea Brunswick-based startup, announced that it surpassed the $1.07 million goal for its Wefunder campaign launched in March 2021.

The crowdfunding campaign ended at midnight on April 4, adding another $100,000 in investment in its final days. With the help of nearly 1,300 investors, they managed to raise $1.1 million.

Now that they have surpassed their campaign goal, Blueshift Aerospace engineers will continue to work on refining the full-size MAREVL (Modular Adaptable Rocket Engine for Vehicle Launch) engine, which was successfully tested last month at their headquarters. of Brunswick. This will ultimately pave the way for the company’s next rocket launch, next year’s Starless Thief.

According to the company’s website, the Starless Rogue is a state-of-the-art ride to suborbital space, offering one of the longest 0g times at 6 minutes. Low launch accelerations (

It will reach a maximum height of 350 kilometers, a microgravity time (the condition in which people or objects appear weightless) of 6 minutes, a maximum acceleration of 5 grams, a payload bay diameter of 24 inches and a maximum payload mass of 66.139 lbs.

“Over the next few months, we will complete testing of the full-size MAREVL engine, which is a superior proprietary technology for burning biofuel, so we will test and tune it,” said Sascha Deri, CEO and Founder of Blueshift Aerospace “Basically once it’s settled we’ll pivot to start building the full starless rogue and develop a lightweight version of that engine and within a year we’ll be launching our customers’ payloads into space.” In about a month, we will begin an additional funding round with accredited investors to help fund the construction of the entire rocket and its launch.

He added: “The main reason for this upcoming launch is to qualify for a program within NASA to enable us to be a provider of flights for which researchers can be funded. This program is called the NASA Opportunity Flight Program and it will earn us between $350,000 and $550,000 per customer and we would have between three or four of those customers experiment on a rocket on each launch.

Additionally, to support Maine’s emerging aerospace industry, the state Senate approved a bill by Senator Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick. The law project, LD 1923“An Act To Establish the Maine Space Corporation,” received unanimous, bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House.

As amended, LD 1923 would create a public-private partnership to facilitate the growth of space and aerospace industries in Maine, called the Maine Space Complex. The Maine Space Complex would serve as a central hub for Maine’s space industry, facilitate data storage and analysis, research and development, and develop and promote jobs in Maine, as the office illustrates. of the Senate majority of the Maine Legislative Assembly.

After the Senate approved the bill, Daughtry released a statement saying the aerospace industry can help drive Maine’s economy over the next 20 years and provide jobs for people in the state.

“A New Maine Space Economy Could Bring Between $550 Million and $1.1 Billion per year to the state over the next 20 years, including between 2,800 and 5,500 well-paid jobs. Maine must be prepared for coordinated economic development,” Daughtry said. “By creating the Space Corporation, we will be ready to collaborate between existing and new industries to invest in Maine’s future. This proposal is specialized toward Maine’s needs and has the potential for Maine to fill the nanosatellite research and development niche to perform innovative work such as monitoring the impacts of climate change.

Deri echoed Daughtry’s sentiments in highlighting his company’s positive impact on the Maine labor market so far.

“When we first moved to Brunswick I was only able to hire one person and now we have about 10 people who are paid in one form or another,” he said. “If we add people we hire and people who actually work for equity within the company, we’re probably about 19 people and most of them are in Maine. So it really exceeded my expectations.

The Maine Technology Institute is an industry-led, state-funded, non-profit organization whose mission is to stimulate the growth of technology-intensive businesses that create quality jobs throughout the state.

Deri says MTI has been instrumental in his business.

He added, “Between the additional sources of funding from Maine Technology Institute and the crowdfunding campaign, that’s what really made this possible, and we really appreciate our investors and MTI who have really been an investor in us as well. . ”

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