Firehawk Aerospace breaks ground on new rocket testing site in Midland

MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) - A new aerospace company broke ground in Midland County today.

Firehawk Aerospace’s new rocket engine testing site is located a few miles behind Southwest Baptist Church.

“Made in Midland means something when it’s also in space,” said City Councilmember at large Dan Corrales.

Firehawk Aerospace, a North Texas based company officially broke ground today at their new test site located in Midland County.

The company plans to use the site for horizontal testing of hybrid rocket engines.

“You guys have the perfect environment out here for the energy industry and that includes aerospace,” said Firehawk Aerospace Chief Engineer Dr. Justin Karl.

“We saw what was going on at the international airport and space port, we saw what was going on and we really thought it was just the perfect environment for us to delve into.”

Karl says the 3-year-old company strives to make rocket engines safer and more reliable.

“Our competitive edge is that things are safer and they can store longer,  they’d be good for long term space missions,  they’d be good for missile defense,”  said Karl.

Karl says if you’re at the test site the rocket engine testing will be loud,  but unless you’re standing right next to it,  it won’t make any more noise than the rest of the industrial equipment that’s out there.

“Not only is it a great business environment we’ve already got all the resources we need here, but a lot of people also think about what you need to run an aerospace company

and they flock to one of the NASA or air force bases but the fact is it really is all right here in the oilfields in Midland,” said Karl.

The aerospace company signed a two year lease for the land but says they are already looking for ways to extend it looking to source locally for a lot of the tehnician work

and site operations work.

All of the work that will be done on the new land for the facility will be local contractors, Karl says their sticking with small owned families businesses in the area.

The more businesses that work in this industry that see that Midland is not just hospitality we want to go out and make this publicly known throughout the U.S. Midland is a place that you can make home for the aerospace industry,” said Corrales.

The company plans to stay in Midland with hopes of moving even closer to the Midland International Air and Space Port.

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