The company is testing one in all its Ripley rocket engines in Colorado.
Big Dipper
Two Colorado space companies laid off employees last week as they struggle to regulate to the brand new normal of a constrained financial environment.
The layoffs took place at Ursa Major, which makes rocket engines, and at Orbit Fab, a startup geared toward providing spacecraft refueling services.
An individual acquainted with Ursa Major told CNBC that the corporate has laid off 27% of its employees, or about 80 people. A spokesperson for Ursa Major confirmed to CNBC that the corporate was restructuring, but declined to say what number of layoffs had been made. In an announcement, Ursa Major said the job cuts “align our workforce to higher meet the needs of our national security customers.”
“We would like to acknowledge the contribution of each current and former Ursa Major skilled. Their efforts and achievements can’t be overstated and we deeply appreciate the advances in space and hypersonic propulsion that they’ve helped make possible,” said Ursa Major.
In LinkedIn posts, many former Ursa Major employees wrote that Wednesday was a “hard day” at the corporate, with “top class people” being laid off as a part of “major layoffs”.
Orbit Fab’s chief business officer Adam Harris said in an announcement to CNBC that 10 people were laid off this week and the corporate may have about 50 employees after restructuring. It recently hired a latest chief operating officer and plans to rent a chief engineer and others in the approaching months.
“Our enhanced strategy will enable Orbit Fab to higher meet the critical and growing demand for in-space refueling infrastructure for business and government markets and missions,” said Harris.
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After years of record levels of funding within the space sector, in line with Space Capital, the primary quarter of 2023 was the period of the bottom investment within the industry since 2015.
In line with PitchBook, Ursa Major last raised money in October, with a $150 million round at a $550 million valuation. The Berthoud, Colorado-based company, founded in 2015, had about 300 employees before the layoffs. The Ursa Major line of rocket engines has won orders from customers including the Air Force Research Laboratory, Stratolaunch and Astra.
Orbit Fab raised funds recently in April in a $29 million round at a $113 million valuation, in line with Pitchbook. Lafayette, Colorado-based Orbit Fab, founded in 2018, goals to supply spacecraft refueling services as early as 2025, after launching demonstration flights in 2019 and 2021. It has won early contracts from the Space Force and the British Space Agency .
TechCrunch was the primary to tell concerning the layoffs of Ursa Major.