Space Transport Was Considered "Underdog" In $10 Million Race To Space

The dreams of two young men bent on making a dark horse run at the Ansari X-Prize were dashed Sunday when their test vehicle exploded on lift-off.

Phillip Storm and Eric Meier -- who, together, make up the entire staff of Space Transport Corp. -- had hoped their Rubicon spacecraft could compete with the likes of Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites and Canada's da Vinci Project. But those hopes were dashed in Queets (WA) Sunday when their Rubicon space vehicle rained debris down on the beaches of the Pacific, reaching nowhere near its intended height of approximately four miles.

"We're disappointed, but not extremely disappointed because this was the first test flight," Storm said in a Seattle Times interview. "NASA lost several rockets before they got something good."

Storm and his partner are both 26-years old. They had hoped an early demonstration of their Rubicon rocket would attract investors. So far, they've reportedly raised about $220,000 -- mostly from family and friends.

"We're definitely the underdogs," Storm told the Times before the launch. "We're underfunded and understaffed, but we think we've got what it takes."

The spacecraft was powered by solid-fuel rockets and was approximately 23-feet long. Sunday afternoon, it was in thousands of pieces on the shore.

Yet, both Storm and Meier pledge their micro-company will continue trying to launch a vehicle that can reach the edge of outer space, 62 miles above us. That's exactly what X-Prize Chairman Peter Diamandis hoped would come of encouraging small companies to reach for the stars.

"We are living in a very risk-adverse society these days, which is killing us!" Diamandis told ANN at Oshkosh earlier this month. It's ridiculous that we should have to ground the shuttle every time there's a failure. It's ridiculous that NASA is not taking the same kinds of risks that these small companies. It's amazing that only these small companies can innovate large corporations and governments have become risk-adverse."

FMI: www.space-transport.com