Ursa Major cut the ribbon Thursday on a new 25,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in southwest Longmont, adding a dedicated clean room and avionics production line to a Colorado aerospace footprint that state officials say could grow by up to 1,850 jobs over the next eight years. Governor Jared Polis, Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera, and Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade leader Eve Lieberman joined local officials and Ursa Major's team to mark the opening, according to a post from the governor on Facebook.
The new site, detailed by Ursa Major, houses dedicated welding and manufacturing labs, an ISO 7 hard-walled clean room with an ISO 8 gowning room, and an environmental test lab, with capacity for more than 125 employees. The Longmont plant is built to handle avionics and in-space propulsion system production, complementing Ursa Major's main headquarters in nearby Berthoud, as reported by BizWest.
Governor Polis celebrated the Longmont facility and the anticipated jobs in his Thursday post, framing the opening as part of a broader push to keep aerospace manufacturing rooted in Colorado. Local Colorado leaders and the state economic development office worked alongside Ursa Major on the project, and the governor's post pointed to the state's more than 2,000 aerospace businesses and its world-class aerospace talent as reasons the company chose to expand in-state rather than elsewhere.
Tax Credits Tied to Strict Hiring Targets
To support the expansion, the Colorado Economic Development Commission approved up to $35.26 million in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits spread over eight years, with an option to convert up to $23 million of that into refundable tax credits worth as much as $18.4 million in direct cash refunds. That figure, detailed in a release from the Colorado Office of the Governor, is contingent on Ursa Major meeting strict net hiring and wage thresholds rather than being guaranteed outright.
The 1,850 new positions anticipated across Ursa Major's Colorado facilities carry a required average annual wage of $128,108, spanning specialized engineering, production assembly, and administrative roles, per BizWest's January reporting. That figure represents an eight-year, multi-site hiring projection tied to the state incentive package rather than an immediate headcount at the 125-capacity Longmont building alone.
Colorado officials didn't stop at the job growth credits. In July, state economic development officials exhausted the entire $15 million annual cap for the state's fiscal year 2027 semiconductor tax credits to help secure Ursa Major's commitment to expand its manufacturing footprint in Colorado, according to the Denver Gazette. Colorado caps semiconductor-related incentives at $15 million annually through fiscal year 2028, underscoring how aggressively the state moved to keep the company from expanding elsewhere.
Freeing Up Space for Missiles and Engines
Shifting avionics and clean-room assembly to Longmont isn't just about adding square footage — it unblocks factory floor space at Ursa Major's Berthoud headquarters for liquid engine production, vehicle integration, and all-up-round assembly of its Draper engine and HAVOC missile system, the company's release states. Ursa Major produces both liquid-propellant engines and solid rocket motors, and the Longmont facility is designed to let the Berthoud site focus on higher-volume weapons manufacturing.
That manufacturing push comes months after Ursa Major unveiled HAVOC, a medium-range hypersonic missile system powered by its 3D-printed Draper liquid rocket engine, in February. As reported by Breaking Defense, Ursa Major is targeting a unit cost under $3 million for HAVOC, aiming to give the U.S. military a mass-producible option against legacy hypersonic missiles that frequently cost tens of millions per unit. Earlier this year, the U.S. Navy also awarded Ursa Major a $10 million development contract to advance its MK 104 solid rocket motor design through static fire testing, expanding domestic production capacity for naval missile defense systems as solid rocket motor supply chain bottlenecks have delayed Pentagon missile deliveries nationwide.
A Startup's Decade-Long Climb to Defense Prime
Ursa Major was founded in 2015 by former SpaceX engineer Joe Laurienti and has grown from a Berthoud-based engine startup into a multi-state defense manufacturer, operating an additive manufacturing plant in Youngstown, Ohio, a rocket test site in Galeton, Colorado, and a 400-acre solid rocket motor test site in Weld County, Colorado. The company appointed 30-year aerospace veteran Chris Spagnoletti as chief executive officer in February, elevating him from president of liquid systems to lead the transition from propulsion startup to high-rate defense integrator, as Hoodline reported in its piece on Ursa Major's new CEO. Spagnoletti succeeded Dan Jablonsky and founder Laurienti in the role.
The Longmont opening lands amid broader growth across Colorado's aerospace sector, which expanded 24% over five years to surpass 2,000 active businesses and pulled in $22.8 billion in federal aerospace funding contracts in 2024 alone, according to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. The state also hosts major military installations, including U.S. Space Command, and the governor's post noted that Colorado holds the majority of U.S. Space Force operational capabilities — factors state officials point to when explaining why defense-tech firms like Ursa Major keep expanding within Colorado's borders rather than out of state.
