American Pacific Invests in Frontier Aerospace, a Leader in Space Propulsion
April 20, 2021
American Pacific
Corporation has made a minority investment in
Frontier Aerospace ("Frontier" or "the
Company"), a leader in the space propulsion
industry. Terms of the transaction were not
disclosed.
Frontier Aerospace marks
American Pacific's first investment since being
acquired by AE Industrial Partners, LP ("AEI")
in 2020. AEI is a private equity firm
specializing in Aerospace, Defense & Government
Services, Space, Power Generation, and Specialty
Industrial markets.
Based in Simi Valley,
California, Frontier was founded in 1997 by
President Jim McKinnon, previously a propulsion
research engineer at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
The Company provides end-to-end space propulsion
services, from concept ideation to product
development to design verification testing.
Frontier has a reputation for handling complex
projects that can benefit from its industry
experience, resources, and partnerships. Its
products are used in defense, GEO/deep space
applications, lunar landers, collision
avoidance, space transportation, space tourism
and earth observation satellites. Frontier's
propulsion systems are currently slated for two
lunar landers as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar
Payload Services ("CLPS") mission.
"With our investment in
Frontier, we now have a strategic partner in
next-generation, in-space liquid propulsion
technology," said Hal Murdock, CEO of American
Pacific. "Jim and the Frontier team bring a
strong space heritage and have a solid
reputation for innovation, and we are proud to
work together to better serve our launch
industry customers."
"With American Pacific's
investment, we gain additional resources to take
advantage of the tremendous interest in today's
space industry, combined with the added benefit
of their deep defense industry expertise," said
Frontier's Mr. McKinnon. "We also look forward
to leveraging AEI's relationships and intimate
understanding of aerospace and defense's unique
challenges."