Aerospace startup ThinkOrbital selects Colorado as headquarters

A company that is developing an orbital platform to manufacture products in space or recycle space debris has chosen Colorado as its headquarters.

State officials said Thursday that startup ThinkOrbital also considered Florida for its headquarters. The company, which has 11 employees, will initially focus on research and development and expects to create 60 new jobs at an average wage of $80,433.

“Colorado is the epicenter of the aerospace industry, and we are excited to welcome ThinkOrbital to Colorado, bringing 60 new good-paying jobs to Coloradans and joining our innovative and collaborative aerospace community,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.

Colorado’s aerospace industry is the second-largest in the country, behind California’s. A report by the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation and the Colorado Space Coalition said there are 290 aerospace companies in the state and more than 500 companies that provide space-related products and services.

The report said employment in the aerospace industry grew 11.2% from 2019 to 2020 in the nine-county Denver area and northern Colorado and grew 30.1% from 2015 to 2020.

The growth was one of the key factors in ThinkOrbital’s decision to locate its headquarters in Colorado, according to state officials. The company also cited the area’s highly educated and skilled workforce.

ThinkOrbital is developing platforms that can be deployed in a single launch and assembled autonomously in orbit. The structures could be used for in-space manufacturing, to serve satellites, process and store space debris and for military missions.

“Our  ThinkPlatform can scale up to deliver 4,000 cubic meters of internal volume in space through a single launch, four times the volume of the International Space Station,” said retired Air Force Col. Lee Rosen, company co-founder, president and chief strategy officer, said in a statement.

“Colorado presents a great opportunity to build and test our technologies on Earth, with access to a great talent pool, a rapidly growing new space industry and several U.S. Space Force installations,” added Rosen, a former SpaceX vice president and U.S. Air Force Academy graduate.

Colorado companies are at the forefront of efforts to commercialize space, said Eve Lieberman, executive director of the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

Companies are increasingly interested in taking advantage of the properties of low Earth orbit. The conditions can enable easier manipulation of materials, speed up development cycles and aid research on cures for diseases because cell cultures grow differently.

ThinkOrbital received two U.S. Space Force Orbital Prime contracts in 2022. The contracts are for developing technology to clean up space debris and other space services. The company is subleasing space in Lafayette and is considering permanent sites in the Denver and Boulder areas.

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