The space industry has always attracted systems thinkers, and it’s pretty obvious why that’s the case. You have to be able to view the world in terms of a “big picture” to grasp the million or so different connections that must harmonize, for objects made on Earth to be shot out of the atmosphere and enter orbit intact.

For different reasons, the additive manufacturing (AM) industry also draws its fair share of big picture types. Understanding why/how AM should be incorporated into a production process increasingly requires an appreciation of innumerable factors that aren’t directly related to manufacturing itself: geopolitical factors, labor market factors, resource limitations, etc.

This overlap doesn’t necessarily explain why the space industry and the AM industry have been so complementary to one another. But it does probably help explain why the two industries tend to thrive whenever their paths cross.

One of the engines for the Vaya Space rocket.

Vaya Space, headquartered in Florida’s Space Coast, perfectly exemplifies that synergy between space applications and AM, something which became clear to me when I spoke to Kineo Wallace, the company’s Lead Propulsion & Fluids Engineer, and its Director of Sales and Marketing, Mary Baldino.

An end-to-end launch services company, as well as a provider of propulsion solutions to the defense sector, Vaya Space 3D prints the rocket fuel grains that power its engines, and metal AM is a key part of the company’s rocket production process:

“We have a couple of patents on different AM methods for the production of rocket fuel using our specialized rotary printing method and horizontal printing methods, which enables us to print very large format hybrid rocket fuel grains, or even fully solid rocket fuel grains that, without AM, would require far more hazardous control methods during production,” Wallace explained.

“That’s what we were originally focused on. But as we developed our technology, we found that AM has really become an enabler for hybrid rocket technology, in general. Traditionally, hybrid rocket engines use a shower head style injector — it looks just like a shower head. Through the use of metal AM, we were able to produce a vortex flow based injector.”

The way Wallace came up with that idea is something straight from a history of great inventors, like the story about Nikola Tesla drawing sketches of a brushless AC motor in the sand while he was taking a walk in Prague in the late 19th century:

”I was at a coffee shop working remotely in New Orleans during Hurricane Irma, and it occurred to me that mimicking the physics of the hurricane would give us much more control over how the engine functions,” Wallace continued.

“We’ll end up using the liquid oxygen to cool the nozzle to keep it from melting, which improves the engine performance. That also powers a turbine, which makes the vehicle as a whole a single fluid system, drastically reducing part count and complexity. AM enables all those features.”

That trajectory whereby Vaya started out using polymer AM from the outset, then adopted metal AM for entirely separate aspects of its workflow, then built the technology more and more into its business model, does much to explain what gives the company such an intriguing value proposition. In sum, Vaya Space can truly deliver precisely what each of its customers needs:

“Through leveraging AM, we’ve been able to develop a scalable platform that allows us to dynamically change the performance/size capabilities of our propulsion systems, dependent on customer needs. If you think of a more traditional propulsion house, they’re typically going to have a catalogue of engines that you can select from for your spacecraft, your missile, your rocket, etc,” said Wallace.

“Because of the tools that we’ve developed, though — heavily leveraging AM and composites — we can instead develop bespoke propulsion systems for customers, as needed, tailored to the specific mission set requirements.”

Vaya Space hardware.

Another part of the explanation behind what sets Vaya apart is the company’s ability to avoid bloat. At one point, Wallace described the company as a “mom and pop propulsion company,” which isn’t a phrase I ever imagined I’d hear. Baldino, the sales and marketing director, framed why that’s such a vital angle to Vaya Space’s identity:

“I would consider us an incredibly lean company,” Baldino asserted. “We’re gritty. We don’t have a ton of employees, and a lot of us have been here for quite a long time — everyone at Vaya very much subscribes to a philosophy of all-hands-on-deck, no matter what the task is.

“Our culture is all about innovation, and a big part of that is always trying to figure out how to do more with less. That constant attention to detail, and the unique technological advancements we’re continuously developing, gives us a major advantage when it comes to serving our customers. Ultimately, that translates just as much to cost-effectiveness, as it does to our ability to create unique products.”

The Velo3D team and Vaya Space (Kineo Wallace on the right)

Beyond the company’s internal workings, that “all-hands-on-deck” mentality equally applies to Vaya’s relationships with the companies it works with. For instance, Vaya Space recently announced a two-year, $4 million production deal with Velo3D, and its selection of a metal AM original equipment manufacturer (OEM) wasn’t entered into lightly:

“We don’t like to have transactional relationships with our primary suppliers,” Wallace told me. “We’d much rather it be a true partnership. So in addition to Velo, we’re working with other AM companies on the polymer side, other companies when it comes to DED, etc. I think of it as building almost a consortium instead of a traditional supplier network, where we’re all aligning towards building paths revolving around AM being a true manufacturing powerhouse, not a novelty — where parts can be produced more efficiently, more cost-effectively, and more reliably.”

As I detailed in a recent interview with several members of the Velo3D team, the concept of working side-by-side in close partnership with customers is at the core of Velo3D’s new business model. Aside from that aspect, Wallace said that Vaya Space is also drawn to Velo3D because of the latter’s Made-in-America emphasis:

“As far as I’m aware, Velo3D is the only solely U.S.-based powder bed fusion OEM, and that makes our endeavors with DoD much easier. Similarly, in terms of IP protection, our new partnership involves all these processes like unique laser pathing. Velo3D is one of thew few companies that has explicitly pledged not to transfer IP to U.S. adversaries, so that gives us extra peace of mind that we’re never going to get ourselves in trouble with the U.S. government because some portion of our tech accidentally got leaked somewhere it shouldn’t.”

Vaya Space propulsion.

Throughout the discussion, I was repeatedly struck by how holistic the company’s approach is to everything it does. This even extends to Vaya Space’s geographical layout, with the main site for every division of the company located within minutes of one another, and the campus itself located less than 20 miles from Cape Canaveral:

“I don’t think there’s any other space company with such a compact footprint,” Wallace said. “All the other aerospace startups have multiple locations, in Washington state and Ohio, California and Texas and Florida, spread out all over the place.

“We can keep all of our engineers and all of our tech in one relatively small location, and our testing facility, with a launch pad, LC-13, is less than a mile from our headquarters. We also have a large-scale testing facility within the same 4-mile radius. One of the biggest advantages to that is that I can be at all four locations within a day, without any major transit time issues.”

The company’s recent acquisition of a machine shop, about four miles from Vaya Space headquarters, fits that same exact logic:

“One of our suppliers that did amazing work for us decided they no longer wanted to operate their machining division, and we realized that would give us an opportunity to take more direct control over our own supply chain,” said Baldino. “So we now have Vaya Advanced Machining, in addition to all of our other capabilities.”

I asked Baldino if that might help the company eventually pivot into markets beyond defense and space:

“Our main focus is still definitely space and defense, and becoming a strong partner in the launch services business with Dauntless. But I do think there could be a place for Vaya in other sectors, down the road, and our machine shop acquistion proves we can grow and apply the many different skills we’ve developed so far to areas outside our core work.”

And, owing to the systematic, deliberate nature of how the company operates, if Vaya Space does eventually add other divisions to its organizational structure, it will be the result of a definitively methodical thought process:

“We take on projects that we know we can succeed in,” Baldino concluded. “We stay focused on what we’re good at, and on delivering the things that we promise.” Wallace added, “The way we work enables us to avoid the boom and bust effect. We slowly gain momentum over a long period of time, but I think that actually lets us move faster in the long run.”

Images courtesy of Vaya Space