After a recent successful test launch out of New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range, X-Bow Systems is gearing up for a follow-on launch of its "Bolt" rocket system using the company's additively manufactured motor technology in what X-Bow's CEO said could be a first-of-its-kind test.
Jason Hundley, the CEO of Albuquerque-based X-Bow Systems (pronounced "cross-bow"), told Albuquerque Business First his company is currently planning that follow-on mission, which would be sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. It'd be similar to the one X-Bow ran on June 12, but include the company's additively manufactured solid rocket motor technology, which allows rocket motors to be designed and built faster than traditional processes — normally from a few weeks or months to just a few days.
If completed, it would be the first time X-Bow flies a rocket with a motor designed and built using that manufacturing technology, Hundley said, adding the launch could happen before early next year.
X-Bow partnered with the New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology to scale its additive manufacturing technology in preparation for the upcoming launch, he added. The company, alongside its Albuquerque headquarters, has a presence in Socorro at New Mexico Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center.
As for last week's mission, dubbed XL-2B, the company tested its "Bolt" family of rocket vehicles, the smallest capability vehicles X-Bow wants to produce and make, Hundley told Business First. He said the test focused on upgrades to the front end of the payload test vehicle.
It's the same vehicle the company wants to use when launching its "much more capable" system — which Hundley said has hypersonic-level capabilities — in the coming year or so.
It was also the second launch in a partnership between X-Bow and Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the lab collects experimental flight test data. The first test in the collaboration was in June 2022.
Since then, the company has worked on upgrades, including those Hundley mentioned, and pulled in some new money in the form of a $60 million strategic funding increase award through a mix of venture capital, government funding and research dollars. It also started work on a $25 million manufacturing facility in Texas, near Austin and San Antonio.
Hundley told Business First that X-Bow's test launch missions typically cost "anywhere between a few million dollars" up to around $10 million, depending on the capability the company is testing. Last week's mission was funded through the U.S. Department of Energy and cost less than $5 million, he said.
Eventually, the company wants to run rocket motor tests at a rate of once a month at other sub-orbital ranges across the U.S., not just White Sands Missile Range, according to a June 14 news release. But for the time being, New Mexico will be the spot for X-Bow's continued test missions.
"We feel like we're going to have a pretty good slate of launches out of New Mexico over the next few years," Hundley told Business First in early May. "That will help us set up what we really need from a manufacturing and a long-term footprint here."
