Intergalactic: Southern Utah’s Moonshot Company Getting into the

Intergalactic

Southern Utah’s Moonshot Company

By Elainna Ciaramella

It’s been over 18,600 days since humans last set foot on the moon, yet all the activity in space in 2021 is signaling that we’ve entered a new era of space exploration. The race is on to see who will be the first billionaire to commercialize space travel or the first person to walk on Mars.

The resurgence in intergalactic interest isn’t being driven by government agencies this time around, but by some of the most influential entrepreneurs of our time: Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. While NASA is still pushing towards the ends of the universe, these innovative tycoons are commercializing, even democratizing, space travel. At the center of this new quest into space is a technology developed and manufactured by a newly rebranded St. George startup company: Intergalactic. Formerly known as Airborne ECS, Intergalactic is an aerospace systems integrator that builds the world’s smartest, lightest, and most advanced thermal management systems for the commercial aviation, defense, and space sectors. And while the company once focused on travel within earth’s atmosphere, Intergalactic and CEO Brian McCann are pushing the boundaries to the ends of space.

To understand the marvel of Intergalactic’s thermal management system, imagine for a moment the $2.1 billion dollar Northrup Grumman B-2 Spirit, NASA’s Space Launch System’s rocket that costs more than $2 billion per flight, or the F-22 Raptor, one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets with a price tag of around $350 million. The modern mechanical parts and electronics packed into each one of their systems generate a tremendous amount of heat, especially under the harsh circumstances in which they operate. But just like the heat generated from your laptop computer is regulated by a cooling system, each one of these engineering marvels has a cooling system that keeps parts from frying, electronics from being destroyed, and millions of dollars from being lost. Unfortunately, heat has always been a problem plaguing the defense, space, and aviation sectors. For decades, innovation and progress have been limited by old methods of thermal management that just couldn’t keep up. “Legacy thermal management systems are too big and heavy to handle modern heat loads,” McCann explained. “All kinds of promising innovations in space and aviation have gone back on the shelf because they couldn’t overcome the heat problem,” Intergalactic’s thermal management system solves this problem. It outperforms every other thermal management system by an amazing 300 to 400 percent, and it weighs fifty to one hundred pounds less than anything on the market. In an industry that searches for ways to remove even a pound of weight from its aircrafts and where weight and size matter, this is an incredible feat. “It’s gamechanging technology,” McCann said. “We’re turning a lot of heads in the industry. From a thermal engineering perspective, we’ve accomplished what has never been done before.”

Essentially, Intergalactic designs and builds hyper-advanced air conditioning systems for the space, defense, and aviation industries. “Your home, car, and computer all have thermal management systems that are designed to keep people, mechanical systems, and computer components cool,” McCann said. “That’s what we do for emerging space platforms, nextgeneration military programs, and commercial aviation innovations like electric flight and supersonics.” According to McCann, Intergalactic currently has active contracts or latestage negotiations with customers in the defense, space, and commercial aviation sectors. They have been expanding into the commercial space and aviation industries and have promising opportunities in some of the most exciting emerging markets, including space launch platforms, small satellites, electric flight, unmanned drones, supersonics, and hypersonics.

The Intergalactic Story McCann, born and raised in St. George, Utah, earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a MBA from Southern Utah University. From 2007 to 2019, he served as Vice President of Business Development for RAM Company, a premier provider of custom valves and actuation components for the aerospace and astrospace industries, located in St. George. RAM is owned by McCann’s grandparents, Ray and Melzie Ganowsky, and this family connection provided McCann with a lifetime of exposure to the aerospace industry. Brad Plothow, Vice President of Strategy, joined Intergalactic in 2020. He earned his bachelor’s degree in communications at Utah State University and his MBA at Utah Valley University. His career spans nearly two decades and encompasses work in aerospace, mass media, government, higher education, and enterprise and consumer technology, making him ultimately qualified to lead Intergalactic’s expansion and growth into the future.

When McCann was VP of Business Development at RAM Company, RAM connected with Airborne ECS, a thermal management company in Port Angeles, Washington. They believed in Airborne’s technology, saw some synergies in the market, and invested in their growth.

Over time, it became apparent that Airborne ECS had legitimate technology but needed to shore up its business model. With McCann leading the acquisition, RAM Company purchased a controlling share of Airborne in May 2019, named McCann as the president and CEO, and moved the headquarters to St. George in the summer of 2019.

The company spent 2020 refining the business and getting products to market. Then in 2021, they rebranded to Intergalactic—the title of a 1980s Beastie Boys hit song—and are now working on growth strategies to scale. Intergalactic currently operates out of RAM Company’s state-of-the-art aerospace manufacturing facility in St. George, but they intend to move into their own building, currently in the architectural phase, on Tech Ridge in the next few years.

Both McCann and Plothow say they are excited to expand the definition of “tech” in Utah. “Our state has found massive success in software, biotech, and consumer electronics,” said Plothow. “These industries have attracted tens of billions in investment and significantly raised the median wage in Utah. We think aerospace will be this decade’s breakout industry, and we want to create an ecosystem in southern Utah that is attractive to aerospace innovators, investors, and talented mechanical and electrical engineers.”

The company is on a trajectory to become the thermal systems integrator of record in space and aerospace, a significant player in a multibillion dollar industry with only a few current competitors. “In 2030, we’ll all be talking about how the 2020s were the coming out party for aerospace and astrospace. We want to be a major part of that movement,” said Plothow. Why St. George? Intergalactic has been very purposeful in choosing southern Utah as the company’s headquarters, turning away from the classic aerospace hubs of Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Dallas. Although St. George is home for McCann, the active live-where-you-play lifestyle coupled with the beautiful vistas, moderate climate, expanding tech district, stable economy, and availability of graduates from Dixie State University, made St. George the standout location. But the reasons go even deeper than that. In an industry built on bureaucracy and lumbering legacy companies, Intergalactic wanted to set themselves apart, not only with their name but with their location. “We have an opportunity to build our company the right way, with an eye toward the future, in a place with maximum flexibility,” said McCann. “We don’t just want to build a great company, we want to play an active role in broadening the economic base in southern Utah.” “Washington County today is a lot like Utah County a decade or so ago,” added Plothow. “There is lots of momentum, a nascent tech scene, and lots of opportunity to shape the future. We want to build our company in St. George to keep the economic benefits in the community and bring high-paying jobs in exciting new fields,” he said. To be sure, Intergalactic’s presence in St. George has had a positive impact on the city and the surrounding communities. Jobs at tech companies in Utah pay nearly double the median income, and for every technical role, tech companies provide five jobs in support functions like sales, marketing, product management, finance, and HR. “Startups are hard,” said McCann. “Aerospace is hard. We’re choosing to do very hard things, but we’re motivated by the mission. We don’t have a Neil Armstrong moment in our generation yet, but we think that moment will come this decade, and we want to be a part of it. We want to be able to talk about iconic moments in space and sky and tell our grandkids, ‘We helped build that.’ We want to bottle up that excitement and encourage more young people to pursue careers in mechanical and electrical engineering.” Plothow agreed, adding that the company chose to rebrand to Intergalactic because they’re building a different kind of company, a company that is inspired by space pioneers like Neil Armstrong and Amelia Earhart but also inspired by boundary pushers like Skunkworks and SpaceX. “[The name] Intergalactic captures our big ambitions and also reflects our culture,” he said. “We’re building something new in St. George and setting a new standard for innovation,” said McCann. “We’re pushing the envelope with precision engineering and building a company that will enable tomorrow’s moonshots.” With McCann and Plothow at the helm, a team of the best engineers and innovators in the industry, a thermal management system that is, of itself, out of this world, and a business trajectory that is headed toward the far reaches of space, there is no doubt that Intergalactic is southern Utah’s moonshot startup.

Elainna Ciaramella is originally from Los Angeles, California. She spent five years in Las Vegas before relocating to southern Utah for its natural beauty. As a journalist, she covers the topics of business, real estate, healthcare, travel, and tourism. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys spending time with her three daughters and strength training.

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