Scott Nicholas
UP Aerospace and Cesaroni Aerospace have teamed up to establish a solid rocket motor manufacturing and test facility at the Spaceport America hub in New Mexico.
The Space Propulsion Center was built to manufacture military-grade rocket motors for U.S. government clients as well as aid propulsion development efforts for UP Aerospace’s Spyder orbital launch vehicle, the company said Tuesday.
Cesaroni Aerospace also works to expand its production capacities and test advanced bi-propellant engines through the SPC.
“Having a motor production and test facility on-site with our launch complex will reduce cost and schedule for future missions flown from Spaceport America,” said Jerry Larson, president of UP Aerospace.
Larson added that the facility builds on the company’s more than 12 years worth of launch operations work at Spaceport America.
SPC’s launch was capped off with three full-scale SpaceLoft solid rocket motor test firings which worked to validate new motor casing and insulation manufacturing strategies.
The test firings also helped evaluate automated, remotely controlled propellant mix and cast processing facilities within the SPC, UP Aerospace added.
UP Aerospace will perform four sub-orbital space-flown missions from Spaceport America in 2018 including three scheduled NASA missions and one hypersonic mission for an unnamed commercial customer.
