Creating Sustainable Aerospace for Startups and Beyond - Sascha Deri // Founder and CEO of bluShift Aerospace

Disruptors for GOOD | Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises

In Episode 162 of the Disruptors for Good podcast, we speak with Sascha Deri, Founder and CEO of bluShift Aerospace, on empowering humanity’s access to explore and develop our economy to Space while safeguarding life on our home planet.

In 1999 Sascha co-founded the altE Store, a national renewable energy product distribution and light manufacturing company, where as CEO he is responsible for setting the company’s market and product development strategy for the $29M/year organization.

In 2014 he founded bluShift Aerospace.

The company made history on January 31, 2021 with the first commercial rocket launch powered by bio-derived fuel in the world, using a proprietary modular hybrid rocket engine that is also unique to the aerospace industry. Their series of small rockets will be able to lift 30-kilogram payloads suborbitally to space and then to low Earth orbit for academic research and commercial customers.

Sascha grew up in Maine. He earned a degree in physics from Earlham College and a second degree in electrical engineering from University of Southern Maine. He lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife and two daughters.

About bluShift

In 2021, blueShift launched Stardust to great success - now their sights are set on 2023 for suborbital launches and 2025 for low-Earth orbits!

With MAREVL™'s non-toxic fuel blend leading the charge, bluShift will revolutionize skyward trajectories while fostering an environmentally conscious future.

The bio fuel is also non-toxic, and the oxidizer is non-cryogenic. No hazardous materials means a safer and healthier team, and a rocket that will not poison the air, or the water when it splashes down.

A stable, renewable, non-toxic, non-cryogenic fuel reduces many of the costs associated with handling liquid rocket fuel or synthetic solid fuel.

The company has also succeeded in the commitment to perform most manufacturing in-house by using CNC milling machines and 3d printers, and manufacturing their own fuel grains.

In the long term, blueShift expects to save 60% of our manufacturing costs as a result.