After a milestone engine test, Tucson startup Phantom Space Corp. is preparing for final testing of its small rockets as it plans for its first orbital test flight.
David Wichner All the parts seem to be falling into place for Tucson’s latest small-rocket startup, Phantom Space Corp., which plans to launch an orbital flight by next year.
People are also reading… And Phantom recently won city rezoning approval to operate a rocket-engine test facility on a 160-acre parcel of undeveloped desert south of Tucson near South Wilmot Road, with plans to test a full first rocket stage with nine engines later this year, Phantom co-founder and CEO Jim Cantrell said.
Founded in 2019, Phantom aims to become a one-stop shop for small satellites, serving as launch service, satellite designer and builder and manager of satellite “farms” or constellations. 3D-printed enginesThe engines the company is using, the Hadley model made by Colorado-based Ursa Major Technologies, already are in production with 3D-printed parts. Phantom has 10 engines on hand, mostly still in wooden crates, with 200 on order.
The rocket’s second stage uses a single, vacuum-optimized version of the Hadley to push the payload into low-Earth orbit. Building and testingPhantom is in the process of building its own fuel tanks and fuselage sections at its 32,000-square-foot building near East 22nd Street and South Pantano Road. The company is using a large, rotary welding jig to swiftly and accurately weld together fuel-tank sections nearly 5 feet in diameter.
The prospects of a recession and the recent bankruptcy of Virgin Orbit, a small-sat spinoff of Richard Branson’s spaceplane-based launch company Virgin Galactic, have chilled the private equity market for small space startups. Christopher Thompson joined Phantom in October 2021 as chief technology officer after spending nearly four years as engineering head and chief engineer for advanced projects at Astra, a California-based small-rocket company that has had two successful orbital launches since 2020.
Among the other awardees were big launch providers SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, United Launch Services and Northrop Grumman’s Chandler-based rocket division; and small-rocket startups Rocket Lab, Astra and Firefly. Cantrell's book,"Breaking All The Rules: The Inside Story of the New Space Race" was released in late March and is available on Amazon.com.
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