The head of Brunswick startup bluShift Aerospace put his money where his mouth is by eating the company’s propriety rocket fuel during a CNN Business segment posted Wednesday.
“I realized that I needed to do something unexpected that would really illustrate the point we’ve been making about our nontoxic fuel,” CEO and founder Sascha Deri said in a press release. “I wanted people to see that our fuel is truly nontoxic and benign. You can literally eat the stuff.”
BluShift, which hopes to tap into the lucrative market of launching small satellites into a polar orbit, has won attention and investors for its eco-friendly approach to aerospace engineering. The company claims its bio-derived, solid fuel, discovered by Deri on a visit to his brother’s North Yarmouth farm, has nearly no carbon footprint.
“BluShift was created to prove to the world that green aerospace is not only possible, but imperative,” Deri said. “The industry needs to do much more to move toward green fuels, and we are actively providing a model for near net zero carbon rocket launches.”
The company launched its first rocket using the fuel in January 2021. Since then, it has conducted a series of tests on its larger MARVEL 2.0 engine, which it plans to use for commercial sub-orbital launches beginning in 2023.
Deri’s stunt, which CNN filmed during a June visit to Brunswick, might convince skeptics that his rocket fuel really is safe – but few will line up behind him to try it as a snack.
“I can’t say it’s the most delicious thing in the world to eat,” he said through a grimace. “I really wish I had taken a much smaller bite.”
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