Colorado Rocket Engine Maker Expands with 400-Acre Testing Site

It's great to see a Colorado-born business find national and worldwide success, following in the footsteps of Crocs and the like. The company's motto is "Fly Faster;" they'll be bringing that motto to just outside a small town in Weld County. Just over 60 miles to the northeast of where they started, their latest (very large) testing pad site will take up a lot of space.

Small Northern Colorado Company Making Big Expansion

Ursa Major is a Northern Colorado company that many have probably never heard of. Located in Berthoud, near I-25, they do primarily for U.S. Aerospace and Defense and America's allies, by designing and making capabilities for hypersonics, solid rocket motors, in-space propulsion, and launch. They got their start in 2015; ten years and about 270 employees later, their success lead them to go for more, by breaking ground on what would be a new rocket engine testing site outside of Briggsdale.

Growing up, one of the things that I wanted to be when I grew up was an astronaut; maybe because Elton John's 'Rocket Man' was such a big hit back then. Of course, I never did become an astronaut, but that doesn't mean that talk of rockets doesn't still get me a little excited. This Ursa Major rocket engine testing site sounds like something a young me would be clambering to get a look at.

When I heard that a 400-acre rocket test site was coming to Weld County, I tried to figure out how much land that is (aside from 400 acres.) I looked up "how big is 100 acres," and found that it's about 75 football fields; multiply that by four and you get 300. Finding that this testing site will be the size of 300 football fields, blew my mind. "How big will the engines (Solid Rocket Motor Systems) that they'll be testing be?" was my next question.

You can find out a little more about Ursa Major, below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZIAgr4kllA

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Gallery Credit: Dave Jensen