Florida space firm Rocket Crafters signs agreement with RUAG Space
Florida space firm Rocket Crafters signs agreement with RUAG Space.
Rocket Crafters, a Cocoa, Fla.-based space startup, has signed an agreement with RUAG Space to use RUAG components.
By Paul Brinkmann
This article was originally published at United Press International.
COCOA, Fla., May 8 (UPI) — Rocket Crafters, a Cocoa, Fla.-based space startup, has signed an agreement with RUAG Space to use RUAG components.

The memo of understanding is a further step toward launching a suborbital rocket test this winter, according to Robert Fabian, president at Rocket Crafters. The firm is aiming for a piece of the expanding small-satellite market. Its rocket under development is called Intrepid-1.
“RAUG has a reputation for high-quality parts,” Fabian told UPI. “More importantly, they are interested and have been talking to us.”
He said the two companies started discussions as part of an effort to develop a local workforce for advanced, high-tech manufacturing, called the Space Coast Apprenticeship Consortium.
Rocket Crafters will collaborate with RUAG on the design, development and procurement of a suborbital rocket guidance and navigation system, nose cone and aeroshell to support an initial test flight. RUAG is a Swiss company with a fairly new location in Titusville. Its biggest Florida client is the OneWeb satellite manufacturing plant at Exploration Park just outside Kennedy Space Center.
Fabian said the agreement with RUAG is a part of “rapid expansion of the launch industry here in Florida, medium and heavy, and some of the small companies.”
Rocket Crafters recently pivoted with a new patent for its 3D printed STAR-3D hybrid rocket engines. The company uses 3D-printed plastic as part of its engine core. It only ignites when mixed at exact temperatures with liquid oxidizer — considered by many to be a more stable, safe rocket fuel configuration than other conventional rocket types.
An announcement from Rocket Crafters said both parties recognize future business prospects based on Rocket Crafters’ Intrepid.
Rocket Crafters said it has identified RUAG Space as the ideal partner for carbon composite structure for payload covers (fairings) and aeroshells, as well as avionics, payload adapters and separation systems for future missions of Rocket Crafters planned.
Rocket Crafters says the name of its engines, STAR-3D, stands for safe, throttleable, affordable and reliable.
Source: UPI.