Bringing the space industry to Northern Michigan

In 2016, three-time aerospace alum Brad King merged his passion for space technology with his Michigan roots by founding Orbion Space Technology in the Upper Peninsula town of Houghton. The company builds electrically powered thrusters, called Hall-effect thrusters, that move small satellites around in space. Electric propulsion is a preferred method for getting around in orbit, particularly for the small satellites that ride-share on a single rocket and then need to take their positions. 

“They’ll use our propulsion system to travel from their ‘bus stop’ orbit to their destination,” King said. “Once they’re at their orbital position, they might need to occasionally adjust to a new mission, or they might need to avoid collisions with other satellites or space junk. So they’ll use our thruster to do those movements. And third and finally, about seven years down the road, they’ll use our thruster with the last remaining propellant to deorbit the satellite and burn it up, so they don’t leave junk in space.”

U-M was one of the first American universities to explore electric space propulsion, a fact that encouraged King to return for his PhD. He stuck with the technology after graduation, starting his own lab when he joined Michigan Technological University as a professor in 2000.

Within a couple of years, he was consulting on government satellite projects through his company, Aerophysics Inc. However, as electric propulsion became a viable technology for the increasing number of small commercial satellites, he saw an opportunity to bring it to a larger market, and Orbion was born.

Today, the company employs more than 70 people in Houghton, and its Hall-effect thruster systems, called Aurora, are used by commercial and defense customers. Orbion is considered one of the leading international suppliers of electric propulsion systems for proliferated low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations.The decision to locate in Houghton has paid off as well. While it was an unusual choice for a space-related company, King and his co-founder, Jason Sommerville, saw an opportunity to bring a new industry to a nascent tech hub. They also had a hunch that other tech workers would enjoy the town as much as they did. They were right—Orbion has attracted a group of loyal employees who are thrilled at the opportunity to do space-related work without the need to locate in a densely populated metro area.

“It’s a great place to live,” said Robert Washeleski, Orbion’s chief delivery officer. “I love the four seasons, and I really like winter—skiing, snowshoeing, even plowing.”

Originally from the Detroit area, Washeleski earned his Ph.D. in King’s lab in 2012 and worked at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory before joining Orbion in 2018. He came to love Houghton as an undergraduate student in electrical and electronics engineering at Michigan Tech.

In addition to his role at Orbion, King is a professor of mechanical and space engineering at Michigan Tech. He says the two roles complement each other, with his hands-on manufacturing experience helping him in his work with students.

“I’ve got the experience to know what it takes to build a satellite and put it up there, and that understanding of the practice as well as the theory helps me give students practical advice,” he said. “People ask me, ‘Why did you found a rocket company in Northern Michigan?’ I tell them, ‘Northern Michigan is as close to space as anywhere on the planet.’”

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