Rocket propulsion startup to offer new, bigger rocket engine in 2025-CEO

Minnova

02/06/2022 09:00

By Joey Roulette
    WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - U.S. rocket engine maker Ursa
Major is developing a new medium to heavy-lift rocket engine to
serve a growing field of potential customers, jumping into
territory dominated by a handful of heavyweights, the startup's
chief executive told Reuters.
    Ursa Major Technologies Inc, founded in 2015 by a veteran of
Elon Musk's SpaceX, expects to launch the Arroway engine in 2025
as a rival offering to those sold now by Aerojet Rocketdyne
Holdings  AJRD.N  and Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin.
    The reusable Arroway will be the third and most powerful
engine offered by Ursa Major, and the company is aiming to be
the low-cost option in the market, founder and CEO Joe Laurienti
said.
    "We should be able to do this at a far lower cost point and
far, far faster" than Ursa Major did for its smaller engines, he
told Reuters.
    Small rocket companies have shifted focus in recent years to
building bigger rockets, responding to increased demand for
heavier and shared launch services and less interest in smaller,
dedicated rides to space.
    Arroway, fueled by methane and liquid oxygen and capable of
200,000 pounds of thrust, is in part a response to that shift,
and when clustered together could also serve as a potential
replacement to Russian rocket engines recently cut off from U.S.
companies by trade sanction following Russia's invasion of
Ukraine, Laurienti said. 
    Ursa Major started developing Arroway in mid-2021 and plans
to conduct initial hot-fire tests on the ground next year, he
said. It has several contracts to supply the engine to companies
and the U.S. government, a spokeswoman said.
    Ursa Major's other two, smaller engines are tailored for
small launchers and hypersonic vehicles. The company, located
north of Boulder, Colorado, has raised $140 million to date and
closed an $85 million series C funding round led by BlackRock
 BLK.N  in December 2021.
    Selling liquid-fueled, staged-combustion rocket engines like
Arroway has typically been the domain of larger, more
established companies like Aerojet Rocketdyne, with its AR-1 and
other engines that are used by NASA. Blue Origin's BE-4 engine
powers the company's New Glenn rocket and will also be used by
the Boeing  BA.N -Lockheed Martin  LMT.N  joint venture United
Launch Alliance's next-generation Vulcan rocket.
    A low pricepoint will be key to Arroway's success as the
field of rocket companies needing big engines is not large, said
Laurienti, whose firm has hired engineers from SpaceX, Blue
Origin and other companies.
    Ursa Major's potential customers need to move fast to
generate revenue, and as a cost-savings move they don't want to
develop the engines themselves, said Jeff Thornburg, a longtime
propulsion executive and current advisor to Ursa Major. Arroway
is tailored for all those customers.
    "But now (Ursa Major) has to go show that they can produce
in large quantities, affordably and reliably," he said. "That's
the next big challenge for them."    

 (Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington, editing by Ben
Klayman and Richard Pullin)
 ((Joey.Roulette@thomsonreuters.com; 7034696632;))