Vector Launch Inc., a Tucson-based micro-satellite launch company that filed for bankruptcy in 2019, will restart operations and remain in Tucson.
The company that bought Vector’s rocket-launching assets plans to remain in the failed company’s former quarters near downtown to further develop of small rockets designed to carry micro-satellites into orbit, Sun Corridor Inc. and the new owners said Tuesday.
Vector filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and laid off about 150 employees in December, after a major investor pulled its funding.
After a bankruptcy auction, Vector’s rocket-launching assets were purchased by TLS Bidco, a California investor group that said it would restart the company’s development of small rockets to carry micro-satellites into space.
Vector’s satellite assets, called GalacticSky, were acquired by Lockheed Martin in February for $4.25 million.
The new Vector Launch, led by retired Air Force brigadier general and national-security expert Rob Spalding, decided to restart operations in Tucson after a competitive, multistate site selection process, Sun Corridor said.
Vector’s operations will stay at 350 S. Toole Ave. under a new, market-based lease with Pima County, which purchased the building in August and negotiated a new lease with the company.
“We actually came to Tucson to close up shop, so to speak, and move the assets out of Southern Arizona,” said Spalding, who is acting CEO of Vector Launch.
But Spalding said that Sun Corridor, the local economic-development agency, convinced the company that Tucson has the right workforce and talent the company needed to stay.
“We are committed to manufacturing jobs in the U.S., and it’s clear we have a strong path forward in Tucson,” he said.
A former bomber pilot and expert on China policy, Spalding was senior director for strategic planning for the National Security Council from May 2018 to January 2019 after stints as senior defense official on the U.S. embassy staff in Beijing and adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
A hawk on China policy, Spalding is author of the 2019 book “Stealth War: How China Took Over While America’s Elite Slept” and founded Q Networks, a California-based developer of 5G wireless networks, after warning against Chinese domination of the super-fast broadband technology.
Spalding said Q Networks is evaluating all aspects of the Vector Launch business and hopes to expand the customer base “as well as rehire former employees to jump-start the operations.”
Pima County purchased the 43,500-square-foot Toole Avenue building from the Levin family in August, partly for additional storage space to store personal protective equipment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Spalding said the company will shrink its space to allow the county to store PPE and other critical materials.
Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson said local business and government leaders pulled together to convince Vector to stay, adding that the county “was happy to play a role in providing market-rate space for Vector to reevaluate, reestablish and grow in the future.”
Sun Corridor CEO Joe Snell said local leaders convinced Vector that Tucson, home to a growing cluster of commercial space companies, had the right stuff.
“Vector had been an integral part of the space cluster of companies here, who rely on each other for talent and future growth of the whole industry,” Snell said.
