Orbion Space Technology in Houghton, in the Upper Peninsula, was founded in 2016 by Brad King and Jason Sommerville to develop and manufacture a more efficient thruster system for spacecraft.
The result is the Orbion Aurora Hall-effect propulsion system that is comprised of a magnetically shielded thruster for ultra-long life and high total impulse, power processing unit, propellant management assembly, harness assembly, and storage tank.
Armed with $500,000 in grants from a variety of resources, along with several million dollars in seed capital, Orbion Technology launched a prototype and brought it the commercial market. Several rounds of venture capital later, the company now has a manufacturing factory in Houghton where its building the plasma thruster system, dubbed Aurora, that is now available at a price within reach of commercial satellite companies and will atarted shipping in early 2023.
Companies that send satellites into space via a rocket will use Orbion thrusters to send a satellite to its final destination in space, where it can maneuver and make corrections. At the end of the satellite’s mission, the thruster helps the satellite come down safely and in a controlled fashion, burning up in the atmosphere without leaving debris behind.
“Space has completely changed and it’s all about manufacturing now,” King says. “Satellites are just vehicles, and the industry is demanding mass production of these vehicles And that’s what Michigan does – Michigan is set up to do mass production of vehicles.
“So really, all of the manufacturing infrastructure, the technical know-how is right here in the state. We just need to map this on this new class of vehicles which don’t drive on the surface of the earth, they fly around above it.”
Name: Orbion Space Technology
Address: 101 Lakeshore Dr., Houghton
Email: NA
Website: orbionspace.com/
Phone Number: 906-482-4381
Category: Techn ology
Founded: 2016
Founder: Brad King and Jason Sommerville
Number of Employees: 48
Most Recent Annual Revenue: NA
Video Link: NA
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