Tue, Mar 14, 2006
Rocketplane Kistler May Offer ISS Flights As Soon As 2008
Aero-News has learned that Rocketplane Limited, Inc. and Kistler
Aerospace Corporation have joined forces as a new space
transportation team. This team -- to be named Rocketplane Kistler
-- is made up of two companies with histories dating back to the
start of the entrepreneurial space movement in the early
1990’s.
"Dr. George Mueller and the Kistler team have developed a mature
and technologically sound design capable of revolutionizing space
transportation," said Rocketplane President and CEO George French,
Jr. "Rocketplane Kistler has a unique chance of making commercial
space viable by reducing the cost to orbit and by building a fleet
of cargo-carrying vehicles for transport to low earth orbit, Space
Station and beyond."
The two companies will have to find a way to merge two
distinctly different vehicle structures. The Rocketplane XP Vehicle
is a four-seat fighter-sized vehicle, derived from a retired Lear
23, that is fitted with a delta wing and a V-tail (above); Kistler
Aerospace Corporation has worked to develop the more conventional,
vertical-launch K-1 fully reusable aerospace vehicle (below, right)
designed to deliver payloads to orbit and provide a low-cost
alternative to single-use launch vehicles.
Both companies stress,
however, that despite utilizing different vehicle architectures,
they share many common core technologies -- such as thermal
protection systems; liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket propulsion,
advanced integrated vehicle health management systems; and an
overall high Technical Readiness Level.
Representatives with the Rocketplane Kistler team tell ANN the
new company will work to combine the best of both systems --
suborbital spaceplanes that are optimized for near-term space
tourist and microgravity research applications, and two-stage fully
reusable vertical launch vehicles that are optimized for
International Space Station crew and cargo delivery and affordable,
responsive commercial launch services.
"When studying Kistler closer, I realized that Dr. Mueller and
his team has over the last 12 years actually been pushing the
envelope so that NASA can exit their Shuttle program by having the
K-1 replace some of their key requirements," said French. "Also,
remember Kistler has employed substantial amounts of private risk
capital that puts the K-1 $600M ahead of the next competitor for
the ISS re-supply, and the result of those efforts position
Rocketplane/Kistler for an ISS flight as early as 2008."
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