Author Topic: Rocketplane's Majority Owner Buys Kistler (Read 3856 times)

AndyMc · « **on:** 02/28/2006 02:44 pm »

http://www.space.com/news/rocketplane_022606.html

Quote:
"The majority owner of Rocketplane Limited, Inc., an Oklahoma City, Okla.-based company building a reusable space plane for the suborbital tourism market, is adding Kistler Aerospace to his portfolio and initially intends to use its design for a reusable orbital vehicle to compete for business from NASA such as delivering supplies to the international space station."

Kistler: http://www.kistleraerospace.com/
Rocketplane: http://www.rocketplane.com/home.asp

CEV Now · « **Reply #1 on:** 02/28/2006 06:05 pm »

Good or bad news?

Jim · « **Reply #2 on:** 02/28/2006 06:41 pm »

New money conduit for Kistler design

dmc6960 · « **Reply #3 on:** 02/28/2006 09:12 pm »

Good news. If construction is restarted it will add another serious contender to the commerical market. The article says the first item on the to-do list is to use it as a COTS proposal.

Potential commecial systems with a chance (in my book)

SpaceX - Personal favorite, has small rocket, complete plans for big rocket, but no plans yet for delivery vehicle (at least publicly).
T/Space - Has subscale and fullscale models flown (unpowered) prooving concept. No rocket yet, no drop vehicle yet. Ambitious plans for a first flight in 2008.
SpaceDev - Recently awarded Air Force contract for large hybrid rocket. Has plans to stack them together for orbital capability.
ADD Rocketplane/Kistler - Complete engineering plans for full sized TSTO reusable rocket. 75% completed construction of vehicle #1.

Any others out there people think could stand a chance of flying?

Jim · « **Reply #4 on:** 03/01/2006 12:24 am »

Spacehab has the spacecraft for COTS

and Constellation Services

braddock · « **Reply #5 on:** 03/01/2006 10:49 am »

t/Space is kinda a different breed of animal than the other companies, since it is essentially a consortium of other players, including Scaled Composites, Constellations, and Airlaunch. That might allow them to put all the tech required for ISS resupply on the shelf in some form or another. SpaceX, for example, might just join the team at that point (although somehow it doesn't seem within their introverted homegrown style...).

dmc6960 · « **Reply #6 on:** 03/01/2006 02:50 pm »

Quote

Jim - 28/2/2006 7:24 PM

Spacehab has the spacecraft for COTS

and Constellation Services

What does Constellation Services have that can support COTS? All I could find was a presentation about using a Soyuz ship, upper stage engine, and a "Logistics Carrier" (to connect the two and give life support) for a lunar swingby mission. I could not find any other information on this logistics carrier which seems to be the only thing not already in use by someone else.

Jim · « **Reply #7 on:** 03/01/2006 02:59 pm »

Quote

dmc6960 - 1/3/2006 9:50 AM
Quote
Jim - 28/2/2006 7:24 PMSpacehab has the spacecraft for COTS

and Constellation Services
What does Constellation Services have that can support COTS? All I could find was a presentation about using a Soyuz ship, upper stage engine, and a "Logistics Carrier" (to connect the two and give life support) for a lunar swingby mission. I could not find any other information on this logistics carrier which seems to be the only thing not already in use by someone else.

I know that they are interested in the COTS and were asking questions. see here (http://procurement.jsc.nasa.gov/cots/). They may be eliminated by the amount of russian hardware they use.