Dawn Aerospace Wins Blue Canyon's X-SAT Saturn-Class Propulsion Business

DENVER, Colorado — Dawn Aerospace, a Netherlands-, New Zealand-and U.S.-based space transportation company, has been selected by Blue Canyon Technologies to provide turnkey chemical propulsion systems for the X-SAT Saturn satellite bus. Dawn will supply thrusters, tanks, control electronics, and full-service support in logistics and propellant loading for the ESPA Grande-class satellite.

Blue Canyon Technologies LLC (BCT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, recently celebrated its first year with Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S). The investment from RI&S saw BCT invest heavily in high-volume manufacturing to enable concurrent production of 60-plus spacecraft. The company has scaled production of its CubeSat, ESPA, and ESPA Grande Microsat buses along with its components’ business to expedite spacecraft production for its clients, including NASA, U.S. Department of Defense, and many others.

"We are moving fast, and we need suppliers that can match our cadence and quality,” Stephen Steg, CEO of BCT said. "The in-space-heritage, creative thinking and solutions-focused approach we've seen from Dawn give us great confidence in their ability to deliver."

“Through a modular approach, we use standardized components and production processes, including additive manufacturing, to provide custom turnkey systems in a fraction of the time and cost of our competition," Dawn Aerospace co-founder, and Chief Revenue Officer Jeroen Wink said. "We typically deliver the first batch of flight units within 12 months, then six months or less for recurring units thereafter."

Dawn recently announced it had been contracted to produce more than 100 thrusters for clients across the U.S., Europe, Japan, India, and Indonesia. The company also has propulsion contracts for a series of constellations, including Pixxel's hyperspectral imaging constellation and the Indonesian Space Agency's (LAPAN) early-tsunami warning constellation. Other contracts include the continued supply for a series of Orbital Transfer Vehicles, such as D-Orbit's ION spacecraft and UARX's OSSIE spacecraft.

"We are investing heavily in our people and facilities," Wink said. "With substantial flight heritage now under our belt on multiple missions, we are scaling to meet demand."

Blue Canyon’s X-SAT microsatellite buses offer a compact profile designed to maximize volume, mass, and power, and carry payloads up to 200 kilograms. These buses are used by a variety of customers and are built to accommodate all types of unique missions.

About Blue Canyon Technologies

Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, offers a diverse portfolio of innovative, reliable, and affordable spacecraft that enable a broad range of missions and technological advancements. BCT's mission is to enable space missions to expand the frontiers of science and defense. BCT currently supports nearly 50 unique missions with over 90 spacecraft, all in production or recently delivered at their newly developed 80,000-square-foot facility in Lafayette, Colorado.

BCT has supported missions for the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and provided the Attitude Control Systems for the first interplanetary CubeSats, which successfully traveled to Mars. The company has been recognized with awards from Inc. Magazine's 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, the 2020 Best in Biz Award, and the 2020 Tibbetts Award.

For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and other company information, please visit bluecanyontech.com or follow the company on LinkedIn or Twitter.

About Dawn Aerospace

Venture-backed Dawn Aerospace is a Netherlands-, New Zealand-, and US-based space transportation company providing turn-key in-space satellite propulsion systems. The company uses a unique combination of self-pressurizing green propellants, nitrous oxide and propylene, which are available from domestic industrial gas suppliers. They are safe and easy to handle, and not subject to complex export controls.

Dawn has achieved a series of significant milestones recently, including launching 21 propulsion units to space from Europe, the USA, and Russia, significant funding from tech investment firm – Movac, and signing a series of commercial satellite customers globally including Blue Canyon Technologies, D-Orbit, Pixxel, and ALE Co., Ltd. The company has been recognized with awards from the 2020 NZ Hi-Tech Awards — Start-up Company of the Year, 2021 New Zealand International Business Awards — Best Emerging Business, and the 2021 NZ Westpac Champion Business Awards — Champion Supreme Award, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Emerging Exporter Award, and ChristchurchNZ Champion Innovation Award.