Brunswick-based bluShift Aerospace won Dirigo Labs’ inaugural pitch contest, taking home a $25,000 prize sponsored by Skowhegan Savings Bank. The rocket startup has also named the site from which it will launch its commercial, bio-fuel-powered rockets.
The company—one of only a few in the world that has developed and launched a commercial rocket—is reducing the environmental impact of the space industry by building bio-fuel-powered hybrid rockets. It made history in January 2021 when it conducted the world’s first commercial launch of a rocket powered by a bio-derived fuel. The launch of its Stardust 1.0 rocket took place at Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone, Maine.
Dirigo Labs, a new startup accelerator in Waterville, in March announced its inaugural cohort, including bluShift. The 12-week program guided startups through a targeted curriculum to execute their project plans, and each cohort company worked with a curated board of local and national mentors from various industries.
“Being a member of the Dirigo Labs accelerator has been incredibly rewarding,” said Sascha Deri, founder and CEO of bluShift Aerospace. “With this $25,000 prize, bluShift can now move ahead with a series of critical milestones, including an FAA launch analysis and a rapid-fire sequence of exciting engine tests. We are incredibly grateful to the mentors and advisors at Dirigo who have been critical to our progress.”
The pitch contest was the culmination of the accelerator. Hosted at Colby College, the pitch competition featured twelve companies. The judging criteria included pitch delivery, capital strategy, and impact on entrepreneurship in Maine.
Launch site selected
BluShift’s mission is to be the first company to provide a dedicated rocket launch service specifically for nanosatellites, which can be the size of a shoebox, but provide everything from weather mapping to research capabilities. This differs from more well-known companies like SpaceX, which is designing heavy rockets to deliver people and supplies to the International Space Station and beyond.
One of the reasons it’s based in Maine is that the state is the only place on the eastern seaboard where a rocket is able to be launched into polar orbit, which is a north-south orbit (i.e., a satellite will pass over the equator at a different longitude on each of its orbits), according to Deri. That’s important because 50.2% of the market for launching nanosatellites require a polar orbit.
The company launched a request-for-information process to find a launch site on the Maine coast. At the end of June, it announced it had selected the town of Steuben for its launch site, as well as a manufacturing facility, according to Mainebiz. The selection was based on the location’s proximity to a suitable off-shore launch site, existing physical and human capital assets, and willingness to provide permitting assistance and economic development tools such as tax increment financing.
BluShift is one of a handful of Maine startups in the “new space economy.” In Maine, the new space economy could contribute $500 million to $2.5 billion per year to the state’s GDP by 2040 and provide between 3,400 and 6,700 good paying jobs per year by 2040, according to a study commissioned by the Maine Space Grant Consortium, which is funded by NASA.
