PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Maine is becoming a prime location for the 21st-century global aerospace industry, now expanding into Aroostook County.
Aroostook is a natural addition because it is on the right alignment with the North Pole for the space industry to launch satellites and small rockets into polar orbit at low altitudes of between 124 and 621 miles into the atmosphere.
With Aroostook’s key role in the future of the state aerospace industry, Gov. Janet Mills recently appointed Scott Wardwell, Presque Isle International Airport director, as one of 11 people she chose for a 17-member board of directors for the Maine Space Corp. Wardwell represents Aroostook and Piscataquis counties.
The expansion into Aroostook is part of an overall plan to establish Maine as a center for launching rockets and small satellites called nano-satellites. Through partnerships with efforts in other parts of the state, the projects could tie into important research and education.
The Presque Isle endeavor would allow people to participate in science, technology and math (STEM) education and data collection that would support local businesses and agriculture, while efforts proposed for Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone would focus on space industry business and education, test launches and a manufacturing site for satellites.
“What’s envisioned there is a knowledge and innovation hub for new business incubation acceleration, hardware and material competent development facilities, satellite and launch vehicle manufacturing and testing,” Wardwell said.
This is all part of the statewide Maine Space Complex plan to create 3,500 jobs with an average annual salary of $77,000, and to capture 10 percent of the United States small satellite and launch markets by 2045, according to Maine Space Corp.’s website.
Presque Isle International Airport has become the home to one of two launch designers in the state. Vertical Air-Breathing Launch Technology (VALT) Enterprises is in Presque Isle, while bluShift is located in Brunswick Executive Airport. Both help spur development of the Maine space industry, Wardwell said.
The statewide space industry board hopes to further collaborations between bluShift, VALT and efforts at Loring through the Aerospace Research Center proposed in Presque Isle.
The Maine Space Corp., whose board Wardwell was just appointed to, is trying to help establish the state as a national and international industry destination by designating certain geographic areas as suitable for the aerospace industry, Wardwell said. It also is meant to be the authority on launching small craft vehicles and satellites into polar orbits.
“We have relatively unpopulated vast areas in the western part of Aroostook County that are suitable for smaller vertical launches,” Wardwell said.
The Maine Space Corp. isn’t just launch sites for small crafts, but also Space Data & Advanced Analytics Center and a New Space Innovation Hub located at Brunswick Landing and Loring Commerce Centre, respectively.
Maine Space Corp. has identified five geographic areas so far — Portland, Orono, Brunswick, Limestone and an undisclosed town in Washington County.
“As space gets commercialized, there are a lot of great things that are being done with satellites that you can hold almost in your hand,” Wardwell said.
One example is the cube-shaped Pico satellite that could be used for agricultural monitoring and natural resource and forest management.
Space-based corporations like bluShift and VALT Enterprises are set up to launch small spacecrafts — not larger rockets like from SpaceX and NASA at this point in time — from Loring Air Force Base. In 2021, bluShift test-launched a 20-foot-tall rocket at Loring Air Force Base, and then its largest rocket test was done late last year.
“We are greater working together than the sum of our individual parts,” Wardwell said.