An upcoming referendum vote in a Down East town could derail the hopes of a Brunswick company that is working to develop rockets for sending satellites into orbit.
Voters in the Washington County town of Steuben will decide on March 11 whether to ban commercial rocket launches, after bluShift Aerospace approached local officials a few years ago to see if they might be willing to have the company base some of its operations there.
BluShift approached Steuben after the company’s initial interest in Jonesport ran into strong opposition from residents in that town. The potential impact of rocket launches on commercial fishing — which company officials have said would be minimal — was the top concern cited by Jonesport residents.
The company wants to build small rockets, which would use environmentally friendly fuel it has developed, to launch satellites into orbits above the earth’s north and south poles. The relatively sparsely developed coastline in Washington County, and the shoreline’s southern exposure to the sea, are well-suited for the company’s plans, bluShift officials have said.
But the vote on March 11, if approved by voters, would bar the company from either building rockets in Steuben or launching them off the town’s coastline, which bluShift said it likely would do from specialized barges that would come and go between the town’s waterfront and launch sites a few miles offshore.
Larch Hanson, a local resident who owns and operates a local seaweed company, spearheaded the citizen’s petition to get the proposed rocket ordinance on the ballot. He said that other rocket companies also are interested in Maine, and that the issue is bigger than just whether bluShift might expand to Steuben.
In a written statement, Hanson said that rocket manufacturing, and possibly retrieving spent rockets from the ocean, is dangerous work. He cited the accidental discharge last summer of toxic fire-retardant foam at Brunswick Landing, where bluShift is headquartered, as something he would fear if rocket manufacturing came to Steuben.
The head of bluShift “and those other CEO’s of rocket launching companies who will come tumbling out of the Trojan Horse, once it’s been wheeled through the gates of our community, will never be held accountable for the damage they do to our air, waters, soils, and health,” Hanson said.
The vote is one of several items residents will decide on March 11, along with the election of two new selectmen to serve on the three-seat board, and a separate vote on a proposed local food ordinance.
Clerks at the Steuben town office provided information about what will be on the March 11 ballot, but directed further questions to members of the Select Board. Personal contact information for the board members could not immediately be found, and none of them returned a message left at the town office on Wednesday.
Sascha Deri, the CEO of bluShift, said that the company still believes Steuben could be a good place to assemble and launch rockets. But he also said that the company is still in the development phase of proving its proprietary fuel system is viable for regular, small-rocket launches. It has not yet made any financial obligations in Steuben or made a final decision about where it wants to expand along the coast, he said.
“We feel that it is premature and shortsighted for a town to consider passage of an ordinance that would essentially shut down an entire industry from operating within its borders,” Deri said.
He said his company’s technology does not harm the environment, and both the scale and frequency of its anticipated launches would have minimal impact on fishermen, who represent a significant portion of the state’s coastal economy. Fishermen also could develop additional sources of income by assisting bluShift with transporting and retrieving its rockets offshore, he said.
If the company’s technology proves to be viable and attracts adequate capital investment — and if local voters want it — it hopes to expand to Steuben with a manufacturing facility, mission control and offshore launch program, Deri said. Such an expansion could directly lead to the creation of 100 to 150 high-paying jobs and could keep younger Mainers interested in STEM-related careers from moving out of state, he said.
“We believe the town should vote against this particular ordinance, since passage would very likely have negative impacts that residents did not consider,” Deri said. “Instead, we believe the town should take the time to carefully draft an ordinance that allows for local job creation and ensures that sustainable Maine businesses can thrive in the community.”
