The Maine Space Corporation reported key business additions at the second annual state space conference, and bluShift Aerospace held a 60-second rocket engine test.
BRUNSWICK, Maine — On a brisk October evening, next to the tarmac at Brunswick Executive Airport, my ears hadn’t stopped ringing when Sascha Deri threw open the door to the used camper his team had converted into a “mission control” center and gave a yell into the sky.
His company, bluShift Aerospace, had just completed a minute-long test burn of its proprietary Marvl rocket engine.
Before the test, Deri and Chief Technology Officer David Hayrikyan compared the potential noise to that of a large jet engine at takeoff. The difference, they each smirked, is that the rocket engine would burn for a full minute.
Standing a little more than 400 yards away, journalists and invited guests watched the test. One observer mercifully handed out ear plugs to the group.
Some 60 …