Ventions, LLC is a launch vehicle company based in San Francisco, California , that develops pump-fed, liquid bipropellant propulsion engines for DARPA and NASA.[1][2] Ventions is a technology provider for DARPA's Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program, and as of 2014 was working on the Small Air Launch Vehicle to Orbit (SALVO) program,[3][4] a pathfinder air-launched vehicle for placement of cubesat sized payloads into low Earth orbit.
Ventions was founded in 2005 as a technology development and services company. Initial work focused on a novel fabrication technique to realize fine featured injectors and cooling channels in rocket engines no more than a few centimeters in size. This was followed by use of the same technique to manufacture small impellers having blade heights as small as 0.020 inches (0.51 mm), and demonstration of small-scale turbomachinery-based pumps for on-board pressurization of propellants.[5]
Ventions is currently integrating its propulsion systems, avionics and other pressurization / plumbing components into a full-up launch vehicle under a DARPA funded program.
Ventions primary office and lab is located in South of Market, San Francisco.
It also has a small presence in Washington DC, and a dedicated test-site for hot-fire testing of rocket engines and launch vehicle stages at Castle Airport in Atwater, California.