Who We Are

We're changing the space industry

Champaign-Urbana Aerospace (more commonly known as CU Aerospace or CUA) is a privately owned company located in Champaign, Illinois. Our 10,000 square foot headquarters is where our innovative technologies are being developed and produced. 

We started out exploring many engineering disciplines across aerodynamics,  plasmadynamics, thermodynamics and material science and we have registered many patents for these technologies developed over the years. Many have been incorporated into products being used by our customers (government, industrial, and educational). Through all of this exploration, our expertise has been recognized most widely for our innovative offerings in the electric propulsion area. 

Our broad range of propulsion system advancements have made CUA a recognized technological leader, offering inexpensive, safe and easily obtained propellant alternatives to the rare Nobel gases widely used in the past. Our dedication to a safer, responsible space environment for mankind is a driving force in our development. 

Interested in learning more about CUA's Products and Technologies? Take a look through the newly launched eBook brochure.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch carrying (CUA) space station cargo mission 9/14/2025

CUA Success by the Numbers
17 U.S. + 3 European & Canadian Patents Registered
in the past 26 years
107 Conference Presentations + 42 journal papers
discussing CUA innovations advancing the space community
1,000+ Owner Published Technological Papers
with more than 50,000 citations
118 CUA Student Interns
through the years
Our Mission

Our Mission

CU Aerospace innovates, designs, develops, and makes great aerospace products.

To provide further context, CUA is dedicated to delivering innovative solutions for those involved in utilizing satellite technology to broaden communication, surveillance, navigation, and weather prediction capabilities. The growth in worldwide dependence on these technologies has reached the point where these satellites will be increasingly required to be launched and operated responsibly, requiring their deorbit after their useful life is spent.

Space sustainability and the concept of “responsible space” are at the forefront in the design and engineering of CUA’s products. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has established a rule that requires the deorbit of any new satellites that have achieved their useful life within a 5-year period of that milestone, we fully embrace that responsibility. Without such debris mitigation efforts the area of space where satellites orbit around the earth, known as Low Earth Orbit (LEO), would experience overcrowding that could lead to the potentially disastrous situation generally referred to as the Kessler Syndrome. This theory, first described in 1978, suggests that debris could cause a cascading effect where orbital collisions would multiply the amount of debris, creating a permanent danger for any spacecraft in orbit or travelling through LEO.

Orbital Debris Problem

Our technologies address the need for collision avoidance maneuvers, which create greater flexibility in orbit; as well as the ability to not only deorbit satellites our products are installed on, but also to remove pieces of debris that pose a threat in LEO and deorbit them. These are just some of the ways that CUA is providing responsible aerospace solutions. The image to the right is a graphic depiction created by NASA to illustrate the orbital debris congestion in LEO.  Read More on Orbital Debris Article by CUA President, David Carroll

NASA Orbital Debris
NASA Orbital Debris
Company History

Company History

Champaign-Urbana Aerospace was founded in 1998 by 6 members who came together at the University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign, where they were members of the faculty and staff in the Aerospace department of the University. This common interest in aerospace innovation has been the foundation upon which the company has been built and thrived. Initially founded as a research and development think tank working on aerospace and laser technologies, CUA evolved into a project-driven business working wth demanding aerospace clients to develop safer, more cost-effective satellite propulsion thrusters using innovative propellant sources. 

We have reached a critical point in the development of these systems after years of concept evolution and development testing, where we are now manufacturing systems for flight and will soon achieve the essential flight heritage necessary for NASA technical readiness, which means we have a few viable, proven, commercial-ready products to introduce onto the satellite propulsion market that offer significant thrust efficiency at a competitive price point. 

Dr. Wayne Solomon, Dr. David Carroll, Dr. Rodney Burton, Dr. Michael Bragg, Dr. Victoria Coverstone, and Dr. Scott White (deceased) were the founding members of CUA, and they are now joined by 5 newer members Darren King, Dr. Joseph Zimmerman, Dr. Phil Ansell, Julia Laystrom-Woodard, and Curtis Woodruff to make up the company leadership. Those members not in active day-to-day roles in the company retain roles as consultants to our product direction and continuing innovation. 

Our Affiliates
  • Red lettered logo for ATSP
  • Blaze Multiphysics red and black logo
  • Thermosys logo
  • VascTech black logo