Colorado Takes Flight In The Space Industry

In this issue, I break some real estate transaction news, share some pics from a trip to Orbit Fab’s Colorado facility, and a whole lot more.

Enjoy!

REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

Arbor leased 8,400 square feet at 129 Sierra Street, El Segundo. Arbor is developing a scalable and low-cost approach to Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS) based on modern rocket engine technology. BiCRS is a process that removes CO₂ from the air through biomass and stores it. (source: Me!)

Radiant leased 38,192 square feet at 1921 E Maple Ave, El Segundo. Radiant is an energy startup building a nuclear microreactor. A climate-friendly alternative to diesel generators, Radiant's Kaleidos 1MW microreactor will be the world's first portable, zero-emissions power source that works anywhere. (source: Me!)

Castelion (f.k.a. Pallas) moves from Washington DC to the South Bay, leasing 16,800 square feet at 737 Lairport Street, El Segundo. (source: Me!)

True Anomaly opened its 35,000 square foot spacecraft manufacturing facility, GravityWorks, in Centennial, Colorado. The company emerged from stealth in April with $30M in funding. The startup builds spacecraft and situational awareness software to protect space assets, with a focus on national security missions. The autonomous Jackal spacecraft, which will be mass-produced at the new Colorado facility, is designed to execute close approach maneuvers with satellites—including potentially hostile space assets—and carry out detailed surveillance imaging, making it a true cosmic detective. (source: PR Newswire)

Construction is complete on York Space Systems’ fourth production facility, which will double York’s production capacity to more than 1,000 spacecraft per year. The new facility, nicknamed “Potomac,” is 60,000 square feet, and located near York’s headquarters in Denver, Colorado. The new facility has environmental test bays with 50-foot crane hooks and 10 trailer docks for shipping and receiving. York Space expects initial operating capability by the fourth quarter of this year. (source: Via Satellite)

ORBIT FAB COLORADO OFFICE VISIT 

It becomes more apparent every day that the aerospace world is growing in more places than just Southern California, so when I had the opportunity to visit with May Rosekrans, the VP of Operations at Orbit Fab in its Lafayette, Colorado facility, I was on a plane a few days later.

Btw, in case you were wondering Orbit Fab makes - and its slogan is - Gas Stations in Space™.

It’s no secret that Colorado’s aerospace engineering talent continues to attract space startups and investment. Founded in a small San Francisco office in 2018 to eliminate the single-use spacecraft paradigm with in-space refueling, Orbit Fab moved to an approximately 56,185 square foot facility located in the heart of the growing Colorado aerospace ecosystem in 2021.

Over the years, this building has served several uses, including an EV car manufacturing and a mannequin showroom. Now, it’s home to Orbit Fab and about 10 space startups that sublease space from Orbit Fab. Orbit Fab calls it Tycho Station.

Orbit Fab’s goal with this arrangement is to create a Space Ecosystem under one roof. Companies can share resources and experience the magic of impromptu meetings.

“The path to building a bustling in-space economy starts right here on Earth with Colorado-based space companies," May said.

Orbit Fab raised $28.5 Million in Series A round of funding in April 2023.

And, if you are a space company interested in being a part of Tycho Station, reach out to me.

PARTNERSHIPS, ACQUISITIONS, AGREEMENTS, AND NOTABLE FUNDINGS

BAE Systems, a defense and security conglomerate based in the United Kingdom, announced it intends to acquire Ball Aerospace for $5.5 billion. Ball Aerospace, based in Westminster, Colorado, is a manufacturer of spacecraft, components and other systems for military, civil and commercial space applications. The acquisition would give BAE Systems “strong growth potential in areas aligned with the U.S. intelligence community and Department of Defense’s highest priorities,” the company said in a statement. (source: SpaceNews)

Sidus Space announced the acquisition of Exo-Space, a startup focused on space-based edge processing and artificial intelligence. Sidus acquired Pasadena, California-based Exo-Space to expand its “talent, technology and total addressable market,” Carol Craig, Sidus founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Along with sales contracts and existing AI technology, the transaction includes the acquisition of Exo-Space’s collective experience in AI and machine learning.” (source: SpaceNews)

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a $1.6 million contract to Chatsworth, CA-based Machina Labs to advance and accelerate the development of the company’s robotic technology for manufacturing metal tooling for high-rate production of composites. Specifically, Machina Labs will focus on creating metal tooling for fast-cure, out-of-autoclave composite processing. The Air Force is looking for ways to increase output and decrease the cost of composite parts for both manned and unmanned aircraft. Depending on size and materials, tooling for making composite parts for aircraft can cost more than $1 million each and require eight to 10 months of lead time. (source: Assembly)

New York-based startup, Innovative Rocket Technologies, known as iRocket, has signed an agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory to jointly develop and test rocket propulsion hardware. The CRADA includes use of an Air Force facility, equipment and AFRL expertise “to enable both sides to develop, build, test and transition U.S. rocket engines at a fast pace,” said Shawn Phillips, chief of AFRL’s Rocket Propulsion Division. (source: SpaceNews)

WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING)

🛰 The Secret Sauce to Satellite Manufacturing - this sponsored content (while probably biased) was pretty interesting to a non-engineer like me.

📅 The Global Aerospace Summit is coming up. Here is everything you need to know.

🌝 India's Chandrayaan-3 moon rover Pragyan rolls onto the lunar surface for the first time. This was India’s first successful moon landing and the world's first landing near the lunar south pole.

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Thanks for reading.

If you’d like your office and/or manufacturing space or business profiled, let me know. It’s always fun to explore and share the many different components of the space business.

As always, I’m here to help with your real estate needs.

Over and out.

Erik Stiebel
Founder and Vice President
CA DRE License #02080746
(c) +1 424.241.4795
[email protected]