DALLAS — With the emergence of SpaceX and Blue Origin, Texas has become a hotbed for companies eyeing space exploration. According to a PwC 2020 report, Texas ranks as the fourth-best state for aerospace manufacturing.
Some companies have relocated their headquarters to the Lone Star State thanks to a pool of engineering talent and the ample amount of land available for research and development. Before Starbase, Texas, existed and the Blue Origin company was established, a group of North Texas friends who had a passion for rocketry began conducting experiments of their own beginning in the 1990s.
"These guys were literally doing what a small team [does], very much like a Skunkworks project," said John Quinn, the CEO of Exos Aerospace.
Before the 2015 inception of Exos Aerospace, a group of less than a dozen men formed a brotherhood out of an airport hangar at the Caddo Mills Airport. Between the 1990s and early 2000s, the group of engineers would compete in rocketry contests and construct rockets that could burst through gravity, hover and descend back to the ground without malfunctioning.
"We've taken projects from a sketch on a piece of paper to successful flying hardware, kind of like giving birth. It takes nine months and we've done it on a crazy ridiculous budget with just this core team of people," said Neil Milburn, the co-founder of Exos Aerospace.
Fast forward here to 2021, the original group of men are still doing what they love, but on a massive scale. Their multimillion dollar company is now winning over contracts with the U.S. military and even ally countries. Project Jaguar is their next big mission. The company is eyeing to send a 1,000 pounds payload to space within the next three years.
"The vision is to take thousands of experiments done on the International Space Station, and make it where tomorrow we can do manufacturing in space and bring those products back, cost effectively," said Quinn. "Who's going to be the cargo carrier? I look 10 years out, yeah, Exos will be providing those vehicles that are reusable, fully autonomous, flying to the moon and taking cargo there and back."
Exos Aerospace is on the verge of expanding in the coming months with a goal of hiring more than 200 engineers and support staff for upcoming missions to space.