There is a moment in every rocket engine test when the planning stops, and the engine tells you what is actually happening.

In this episode of Throttle Up, bluShift Aerospace founder and CEO Sascha Deri joins Justin Starbird from the test site in Brunswick, Maine, to break down what the team learned from its latest hot fire test. The engine burned for approximately one minute and 40 seconds, giving the engineering team valuable data on combustion stability, efficiency, thermal protection, and the changes made leading into the test.

But some of the most interesting discoveries came after the test.

Sascha shares why bluShift is now moving quickly on a 14-inch motor that can be built, handled, tested, and iterated more efficiently. He explains how the smaller platform can help the team learn faster, apply those lessons back to the larger 24-inch engine, and pursue a growing market of aerospace and defense customers looking for alternatives to traditional solid rocket motors.

The conversation also covers what Sascha is hearing directly from the market, the challenges around the availability and cost of legacy solid rocket motors, and the possibility of combining bluShift’s smaller and larger propulsion systems for entirely new applications.

For investors following bluShift, this episode offers a closer look at how testing, customer conversations, engineering decisions, and capital efficiency are coming together as the company determines what to build next and where its propulsion technology can create the most value.