Froberg Aerospace

Froberg Aerospace LLC was founded in 2016 to commercialize multimode propulsion technology originally developed and patented by researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri. The company's core innovation is a single propulsion system that uses one propellant, one feed system, and one thruster, but can operate in either a high-thrust chemical mode or a high-specific-impulse electric (electrospray) mode, selectable on demand or on-orbit.

This multimode approach, embodied in the company's Multimode Integrated Monopropellant Electrospray (MIME) Thruster, expands the design space for small-satellite missions, allowing operators to perform large delta-V orbit transfers, rapid rendezvous maneuvers, and everything in between with a single compact system. The technology has attracted NASA SBIR Phase I (2017) and Phase II (2018) awards, and the company was later selected for a further NASA SBIR Phase I in 2022 for a multimode chemical-electric propulsion transfer stage for cislunar operations.

Froberg Aerospace is based at the EnterpriseWorks Incubator in Champaign, Illinois. The founding team combines spacecraft propulsion research from Missouri S&T and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with hands-on liquid rocket propulsion experience, including prior work on the Falcon 9 upper stage at SpaceX. The company graduated from the Creative Destruction Lab Accelerator in 2020 and has been recognized in multiple NewSpace business plan competitions.