Scorpius Space Launch Company

[Idol Revolver]

What happened to them? They launched some suborbital rockets, but that was nearly 10 years ago. They had (have?) a similar philosophy to OTRAG, but with only 7 pods per vehicle and LOX/Jet-A. They use carbon composite tanks and engines, and so have an innate advantage over OTRAG. Their latest news items are all about selling their tanks to people, not any actual hardware being built. Anyone know anything about what they are planning to do next, or have they just died from lack of funding?
Here's their website:
www.scorpius.com

[Danderman]

This was Microcosm. Their principal customer was the government, so they lived and died based on political factors. One thing about Microcosm is that although they had a large bay for assembling rockets, they depended on their book sales for a steady revenue stream.

[Downix]

This was Microcosm. Their principal customer was the government, so they lived and died based on political factors. One thing about Microcosm is that although they had a large bay for assembling rockets, they depended on their book sales for a steady revenue stream.

Was just looking at them earlier today for a Liquid Nitrogen tank for work.  (Do you realize how hard it is to find cryogenic tanks above a certain size?)

[cheesybagel]

Yeah I always found that company interesting. Shame never saw more from them. I think Gwynne Shotwell (SpaceX President) used to be in Microcosm.

[mmeijeri]

There has been a restructuring and at least part of the company is still operating. As far as I know they still sell their composite pressure vessels.

[Idol Revolver]

There has been a restructuring and at least part of the company is still operating. As far as I know they still sell their composite pressure vessels.

Restructuring as in "shuffle staff around" or restructuring as in "fire everyone not working on composite fuel tanks"?

[mmeijeri]

I don't know. I think the part working on Scorpius was split off from the part working on the tanks and I suspect the Scorpius part of the company is dormant.

www.smad.com
www.scorpius.com

[Idol Revolver]

http://www.spacenews.com/military/100312-microcosm-designing-low-cost-imagery-sate.html

I have stumbled across this, and after a little more googling, the attached slideshow. This is much more recent, and there are a few very interesting things:

1) Funding has dried up for pretty much anything except concept studies

2)To launch the nanosatellite, they are developing the mini-sprite (detailed in the powerpoint)
 a)$15 million and 20 months to develop and validate
 b)$3 million per flight
 c)Small, ~100kg to LEO
 d)Common core architecture, like Sprite or OTRAG

3)They are now into satellite design, or nanosatellite design at least.

Anyone know anything else about the mini-sprite?

[corrodedNut]

They made the composite high pressure helium tanks for Armadillo's super mod vehicle. They even re-christened it "Scorpius".