Denver-Boulder area benefits from booming aerospace industry | Wilnesh News

This story is part of CNBC’s quarterly Cities That Succeed series, which explores cities that have transformed into business hubs that are entrepreneurial and attract capital, companies and employees.

In the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, with an elevation closer to a mile into space than sea level, it’s home to a cluster of emerging aerospace companies.

What may not be obvious to anyone driving in Denver and Boulder is that there are hundreds of companies actively working to solve some of America’s most complex national security needs and producing innovative products that have appeared in science fiction movies.

But the takeoff of the local industry is undeniable: According to a CNBC analysis, the aerospace industry has grown 88% over the past 20 years, more than any other emerging industry in the Denver and Boulder metro areas over the same period. Currently, 191 aerospace companies provide 29,000 jobs in the region, according to the Colorado Space Alliance.

Dylan Taylor, chairman and CEO of Voyager Space, said in an interview with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan: “When we started Voyager and thought about the best growth markets to get talent…Denver was really at the top of the list.” CNBC’s “Manifest Space” podcast. He founded the Denver-based private multinational aerospace group in 2019.

“I think talent plus government coordination are very important considerations and then if you look at other elements in Denver, whether it’s access to capital, it’s an emerging venture capital market, especially the Boulder corridor,” he added.

The list of businesses in the area includes the largest and oldest major contractors such as Lockheed Martin, boeing company and Northrop Grumman Corporation The latest commercial space and defense technology startups such as Ursa Major and True Anomaly. United Launch Alliance, British Aerospace Systems and RTX In addition to Voyager, private space giants such as Sierra Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin also operate in the region, with the latter having been aggressively expanding its local presence in recent years.

“I think aerospace has now become a fulcrum for our entire economy,” said U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., a former Colorado governor and previously mayor of Denver. .

“This is a community working together in aerospace,” said Hickenlooper, who local business executives say is a major aerospace supporter in the region and state. “It’s not dog eat dog. It’s all dogs working together. It’s like a wolf hunting.”

For Voyager, this is certainly true. The company has made seven acquisitions to date – the first two of which were local startups. “We have about 700 employees now and, you know, we have quite a bit of revenue and hope to go to the public markets at some point,” Taylor said.

Its most high-profile project, Starlab, aims to replace the aging International Space Station. Voyager has a joint venture with Airbus to build commercial space stations, and Mitsubishi recently announced it would become a strategic partner and equity owner. The space station is expected to be launched into orbit via the powerful Starship rocket system being developed by SpaceX.

For Taylor, who began his journey aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard, Denver-Boulder’s space story extends beyond Voyager. He has personally invested in the industry for many years as an early backer of more than 50 startups, including Orbit Fab.

With support from neighboring Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, Orbit Fab will relocate from California to a roughly 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in 2021.

“We started the company in Silicon Valley,” said Daniel Faber, CEO and founder of Orbit Fab. “We moved to Colorado primarily because of the workforce. There’s a much larger aerospace workforce here.”

Since the move, the company has grown from six to 60 employees and is focusing on building “gas stations” in space to refuel satellites. Historically, many satellites have been retired not because their payloads or hardware no longer functioned, but because they ran out of power.

“If you run out of fuel on the highway, NASA can come and deliver fuel to you. That’s actually the typical way we do it in space,” Faber said. The startup recently unveiled a fuel filler, or fuel cap, that is flight-qualified and commercially available for $30,000 each.

Like many companies in the region, Orbit Fab counts the U.S. military, specifically the Space Force, as its largest customer. One thing that makes the broader Denver-Boulder area so unique is its strong military presence, including three separate U.S. Space Force bases, the U.S. Space Combat Command and the U.S. Air Force Academy located near Colorado Springs.

“I think location is very important,” said Col. Heidi Dexter, commander of Delta 2 at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. “Our partnerships with all local defense contractors and start-ups give us the opportunity to reduce the cost of operating in space and innovate rapidly, which is critical to defence.”

Colorado now has more private aerospace employees per capita than any other state, according to the Denver Metropolitan Economic Development Corporation.

“What a senior executive, the CEO of a fast-growing company, wants to hear is that young people will be attracted to it,” Hickenlooper said. “Once you attract young people, eventually entrepreneurs will come and businesses will start.”

Tune in: The “Successful City” special featuring Denver and Boulder will air on CNBC on April 11 at 10 p.m. ET.