Orbion Space Technology, a global tech startup based in Houghton, has cut the ribbon on a new rocket manufacturing facility where it has the capacity to manufacture 1,000 plasma thrusters annually for small satellites used for defense and communication.
Orbion was founded in 2016 by two rocket scientists, CEO Brad King and CTO Jason Sommerville, who saw the growth coming in the space industry and knew small satellite propulsion would be needed.
The pair enrolled in the MTEC SmartZone’s Transformative Technologies program, which helped them grow into a business that now employs 50 full-time people backed by Midwest, Boston, and Silicon Valley investors. The new facility is the next phase in factory buildout for Orbion.
The new space will allow the company to scale their plasma thruster production, meeting the demands of customers like General Atomics and Raytheon Technologies.
Representative Ro Khanna from Silicon Valley attended the ribbon cutting, held in partnership with MTEC SmartZone, a startup incubator and accelerator affiliated with Michigan Technological University, and the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
“We’ve made a colossal error as a nation over the last 50 years to believe that production doesn’t matter. We need to produce things again,” says Khanna.
While northern Michigan is not a traditional hotspot of aerospace manufacturing, King sees it as a perfect fit.
“We get to do the work we believe in while living in a place we love. Hardly anyone gets both of those at the same time,” says King. “When people ask me why we built a rocket company in northern Michigan, I reply that northern Michigan is as close to outer space as any spot on the planet, so why not here?”
In addition to the ribbon cutting, a panel discussion was held at the event, where tech employers and investors discussed how to succeed with tech and manufacturing in America’s heartland.
“There is nothing more high-tech than a plasma thruster, and nothing more heartland than northern Michigan,” says King. “The people who choose to live here stay. In six years, we’ve had one resignation. The workforce for tech jobs in rural America is stable, and that is a huge competitive advantage.”
Orbion is one of more than 70 companies that MTEC SmartZone has mentored, incubated, and/or accelerated since 2015. The results are becoming evident: Houghton County grew in population by two percent between the 2010 and 2020 census, and those numbers are on the rise.
“Job growth in rural America is not restricted to remote work,” says David Rowe, CEO of MTEC SmartZone. “Orbion is a prime example of manufacturing coming back to the United States, with the kind of employer a community can be built around.”
