bluShift Aerospace

10/13/22 Update: bluShift Featured Video on CNN here

Why invest in a sustainable rocket launch company?

Have you used your phone today for GPS directions or to check the weather? As you may know, services like these are made possible because of hundreds, if not thousands, of satellites above your head today.

However, the vehicles used to launch these satellites into orbit are enormous and polluting the very planet we are fighting to protect. And it’s only going to get worse as rocket launches are expected to grow more than 10x over the next 10 years. That's a lot of extra greenhouse gases. 

Recent news highlighting the environmental impact of current rocket launches:

• "Emissions from rocket launches could affect Earth's weather systems" - NewScientist, June '22
• "Rocket Launches Could Be Polluting Our Atmosphere in New and Unexpected Ways" - Gizmodo, May '22
• "Pollution from SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic's rockets could harm human health as well as Earth's climate, study says" - Business Insider, May '22
• "The pollution caused by rocket launches" - BBC, July '22

bluShift offers six distinct advantages over the competition

First privately owned launch site on Eastern Seaboard

This one is a game-changer in our industry. 

By securing the first privately held rocket launch site on the entire Eastern Seaboard, bluShift becomes the first privately held company capable of putting nanosatellites directly into the industry’s most highly coveted orbit, known as the sun-synchronous orbit. By securing this strategically positioned launch site, we can offer custom launch services that are 25 times less expensive and 12 times faster than rockets launching from Cape Canaveral or Wallops Island in Virginia.

This map illustrates why the Maine Coast provides a unique strategic advantage for rocket launches.

The Solution We Offer That Huge Rockets Can’t

Electronics are shrinking, which has brought explosive growth to a new industry of small satellites, called microsats and nanosats. These small satellites provide many of the same services as the large ones. But there is one problem: Small satellite customers receive no priority with the big rocket companies.

Huge rockets + tiny satellites = a no-go for small satellite customers.

Basically, small satellite customers receive no priority on board the huge rockets. They’re riding coach to space, while paying more than they should and waiting longer than ever to launch.

We have a better way.

At bluShift, we launch small payloads to space without the high prices or the wait times, providing a critical service that currently does not exist in the aerospace industry. Think of us as a delivery service to space, except instead of delivering boxes and groceries, we’re dropping off small electronics that could provide broadband internet to remote areas of the world, or global Earth imaging that is helping track climate change. And we’re doing it quickly without polluting the environment.

As the world witnessed...

On January 31, 2021 bluShift made world history as the first company to commercially launch a rocket using a non-toxic, carbon neutral biofuel.

bluShift's progress since has been covered by major national and international media outlets like the BBC, Space.com, Forbes, CNN Business and Fortune Magazine.

Revolutionizing space launch to be more Earth-friendly is core to our vision.

Not only is our fuel non-toxic and carbon neutral, but our rockets are reusable and our test site, offices and future manufacturing site are powered by renewable energy.

We have developed a technical, geographical and go-to-market approach that enables us to meet our customer's major pain points at a cost advantage.

All of this is possible because of our incredible team.

TEAM

We have a team of 20 people who have passed up job opportunities at Blue Origin, Boeing, Pratt + Whitney and have instead come to work with us.

MARKET

The small satellite launch industry is projected to grow to nearly $30 billion dollars over the next ten years. And each of our launches is expected to produce between $1-4 million dollars in revenue (depending on the service).

Our business strategy will drive a combined Serviceable Obtainable Market of nearly a half a Billion dollars over the next 10 years.

CUSTOMERS

Who is paying for these launches?

The target customers for our primary service fall in a wide range of commercial customers, from communications providers, earth imaging service companies as well as researchers.

Our target customers for our secondary service are primarily civil and academic researchers looking to test things out in zero gravity.

One of our customers, MaxIQ Space:

And we already have POs and LOIs valued at $9.5M dollars.

FINANCIALS

Revenue starts flowing in next year, and we've modeled our growth over the next 10 years. Our secondary launch service will generate revenue early and steadily into the future, while our primary brings exponential growth, resulting in over $100M in revenue in year 10.

*The values in this graph are forward-looking projections and not guaranteed.*

COMPETITION

Suborbital

Our suborbital competitors are really not addressing some of the major pain points that our future customers have identified, such as longer time in zero gravity and wanting a safer, more sustainable launch partner.

Orbital

No one else is offering a service with a sustainable fuel and no one is providing a truly dedicated launch service.

Another huge differentiator between us and our competitors is that we’ve been able to accomplish so much more with far less capital.

Early on, NASA provided us with grant funding to develop our hybrid rocket engine further, and we intend on applying for more federal funding in the near term.

FOUNDER

My name is Sascha Deri and I founded bluShift Aerospace in 2014. I am a seasoned entrepreneur, having previously founded an energy storage company and a solar company that has 50 employees and $35M+ dollars in annual revenue.

As a child, my passion was always space, and as I grew up, I developed a true appreciation and love for our planet. I always knew I would start my own space company, and with the booming New Space economy, now is the time to do it.

I discovered our biofuel while visiting my brother’s organic farm in Maine. I actually saw a solid substance on the windowsill that I believed could be used as a fuel. When I tested it out, it worked! And it worked better than the petroleum alternative. And that's the same fuel we use today in our rocket engine tests.

ENGINE TEST FOOTAGE

What Investors Like You Have Already Made Possible

Thanks to our first successful crowd equity funding campaign here on Wefunder, we raised $1M from over 1,000 people across the planet. And it was because of our investors we have achieved so much:

• Scaled up our MAREVL prototype to its final full size for testing
• Built our largest engine test stand yet to support, increasing our testing capability, safety and cool factor
• Successfully secured a coastal site for launch that gives us the unique advantage to access that #1 orbit for nano and micro satellites
• Secured Purchase Orders and Letters of Intent for launches valued at $9.5M from customers
• Have initiated FAA the licensing process of our next launch vehicle, Starless Rogue, and private marine-based launch site
• Performed three initial tests with our full-size engine (see above video)

What We're Going to Do Next

With this next round of funding from investors like you we will finish the tuning of our heavy test engine. We will optimize its performance in preparation for light-weighting the engine and integrating it into the full Starless Rogue suborbital launch vehicle, which will be funded by an upcoming Seed Round.

And as we have always done - we will share with you, our investors, live video feeds of our engine tests. You'll see our successes, our challenges, our failures but most of all you will see the perseverance, innovativeness and hard-working nature of the bluShift team. 

We will make the future of Space Launch more Earth Friendly.