Aerospace
Aerospace - James Webb image

Regional space industry resembles science fiction

For those Northern Coloradans who grew up with their science-fiction imaginations fortified by popular television and big-screen programs such as Star Trek, Lost in Space, Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey and others, it’s now hard to imagine that those dreams are coming to fruition just down the road.

It’s no longer science fiction in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado.

Sierra Space Corp. in Louisville is building the DreamChaser, a space plane that has completed its testing, and in late 2024 will resupply the International Space Station. It’s also building a three-story Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) Habitat that will become a commercial lab, live, work space in orbit. And it’s working on the Orbital Reef commercial space station.

Small firms such as Berthoud-based Ursa Major Technologies and Lafayette’s Blue Canyon Technologies have landed multiple contracts to build commercial and small-scale satellites.”

BAE Systems PLC, which recently bought Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., continues to develop an expansion of its Boulder facility. BAE successfully launched the MethaneSAT satellite to gather greenhouse-gas emissions data.

Northrup Grumman (NYSE: NOL) pulls down major, multi-million dollar contracts to support the U.S. missile launch capabilities.

New companies, such as Solstar Space Co., witnessing the rollout of technology and the interest of the regional universities in preparing the next generation of rocket scientists, hang their shingles in Boulder and regional cities that have become home to the growing industry.

Other companies include, but are not limited to:

  • Redwire Corp. (NYSE: RDW), which recently expanded its footprint in Longmont, taking over a new 26,000-square-foot industrial space where the Florida-based aerospace company will manufacture and test its antenna technology and low-Earth orbit deployable structures. 
  • BioServe Space Technologies, a research center at the University of Colorado, is partnering with California-based life-sciences company Fauna Bio Inc. to study human hibernation in space. 
  • Sierra Space Corp. won a $740 million contract from the U.S. Space Development Agency to design and build 18 missile warning and tracking satellites.
  • Blue Canyon Technologies LLC, Lafayette, which develops micro satellites.
  • Maxar Technologies (NYSE: MAXR), Westminster, develops satellites that produce highly detailed images of the Earth for business and government purposes or for intelligence agencies.
  • Woodward Inc. (Nasdaq: WWD), Fort Collins and Loveland, builds control systems for engines including aircraft.
  • Ursa Major Technologies Inc., Berthoud, builds rocket engines as a third-party vendor.
  • Opterus Research and Development Inc., Loveland, builds lightweight, compact solar arrays and composites for holding all manner of equipment in space.

And that’s just a sampling.

In economic terms and categories, the aerospace industry dominates the transportation sector in Colorado. The industry is sensitive to national space exploration and defense programs. Its work, economists report, is a bright spot in the overall manufacturing sector.

Lockheed Martin accounts for nearly half of the employment in the sector.

The supply chain, affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, remains somewhat affected but federal spending is making up for the limitations otherwise imposed on the industry.

Aerospace has become an emerging industry in the region, led by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. These photos show multiple scenes from Ball’s operation. The site plan details Ball’s ongoing expansion in Boulder.