Built By People Who'd
Rather Be Building Engines
United Space Explorers started as a handful of propulsion engineers who wanted to spend less time in meetings about hardware and more time building it. Seven years later, that's still the operating principle.
Atmosphere Is Just
The First Hundred Kilometers
Most of what determines whether a mission succeeds is decided on the ground — in propellant chemistry, test-stand data, and manufacturing tolerances — long before a vehicle ever sees a launch pad. We build the engines, vehicles, satellites, and network infrastructure as one connected stack, because the handoffs between those disciplines are usually where programs lose time.
"We don't think of ourselves as a rocket company that also happens to build satellites. We think of ourselves as a company that delivers a working system in orbit — the rocket is just how it gets there."
— Mara Sutter, Co-Founder & Chief Executive OfficerHow We Work
Four principles that show up in design reviews as often as they show up in this paragraph.
Test Like You Fly
If a component hasn't been tested under flight conditions, we don't consider it flight-proven — regardless of how good the analysis looks.
Build The Stand First
Infrastructure that lets us fail safely and learn quickly is built before the hardware it's meant to qualify, not after.
Margin Is Not Optional
Every system carries documented margin. Exceptions require sign-off above the engineering lead — not a footnote in a slide deck.
Fly, Fix, Fly Again
Hardware that survives its first flight and gets inspected teaches us more than hardware that doesn't come back at all.
Leadership
A small executive team with a strong preference for staying close to the hardware.
Mara Sutter
Co-Founder & CEOSpent a decade in liquid propulsion before founding USX in 2019 to build engines on a faster development cycle.
Devon Okafor
Co-Founder & CTOLeads engineering across propulsion, vehicles, and satellites, with a long-standing focus on full-flow staged combustion.
Priya Nandakumar
Chief Operating OfficerOversees manufacturing and facilities across all four sites, scaling production rate without sacrificing test discipline.
Aaron Voss
VP, Propulsion EngineeringRuns the Huntsville propulsion test program across the Forge, Ember, and Glacier engine families.
Facilities
Four sites, each built around a single discipline rather than spread thin across all of them.
Huntsville, AL
HQ & Propulsion Test Complex
Twelve active test stands for kerolox, methalox, and hydrolox engine development and acceptance testing.
Denver, CO
Satellite Works
Vertically integrated structures, avionics, propulsion integration, and environmental test under one roof.
Cape Canaveral, FL
Launch Operations
Two active launch pads supporting Horizon qualification flights and the Pathfinder flight test campaign.
Seattle, WA
Aether Network Operations
24/7 mission control for the Aether constellation, ground gateway operations, and network engineering.
Company Timeline
- 2019
Company Founded
USX is founded in Huntsville, Alabama by a small team of propulsion engineers.
- 2021
Forge-1 First Hot Fire
The kerolox Forge-1 engine completes its first full-duration hot fire test.
- 2022
Satellite Works Opens in Denver
USX opens its Denver satellite manufacturing and integration facility.
- 2023
Ember-200 Test Campaign Begins
The methalox Ember-200 enters full-scale, full-flow staged combustion testing.
- 2024
Pathfinder's First Flight
The fully reusable Pathfinder vehicle completes its maiden flight from Cape Canaveral.
- 2025
First Aether Network Satellites Launch
The first six Aether Network satellites reach low Earth orbit aboard a Pathfinder mission.
- 2026
Horizon Heavy Enters Qualification
The heavy-lift Horizon vehicle begins full qualification testing ahead of its first flight.
We're Building the
Next Launch Manifest
From propulsion test stands to satellite integration floors, we're hiring engineers and technicians who'd rather build flight hardware than talk about it.