Author Topic: Aphelion Orbitals, LLC (Read 19393 times)

Lar · « **Reply #40 on:** 01/28/2019 08:29 pm »

Quote from: IanO on 01/27/2019 06:10 pm

Quote from: eeergo on 01/24/2019 11:13 am
More information on this former founder's GoFundMe page. Also shows the ugly, but more common than not, side of "startups".

https://www.gofundme.com/i-lost-everything-when-my-business-closed
Ugly indeed! The building flooding problems made made me think this was some third-world country. My condolences.

Just Jersey.

Sad read.

Kryten · « **Reply #41 on:** 02/02/2019 01:53 pm »

As a bitter postscript to this tale, I've found a talk summary from October last year that says that Aphelion had qualified for the Darpa Launch Challenge;

Quote

David Nagy is a founder and shareholder at Aphelion Orbitals, a small launcher company he helped found in early 2016, during his sophomore year of high school. They currently have their offices in Union City, New Jersey, and have carried out successful liquid and solid propulsion testing campaigns, as well as qualifying for the DARPA launch challenge. Alongside his corporate experience, he is also a member of multiple rocketry organizations, and has had many successful high powered rocket flights.

Given the timing of the company's collapse they probably aren't one of the 18 mentioned by DARPA as passing the pre-qualification step, but they could be.

TrevorMonty · « **Reply #42 on:** 02/02/2019 05:52 pm »

They wont be last small LV startup to fall by wayside. This is one market where being first is an advantage, as more LVs come online the investor money will dry up.

Kryten · « **Reply #43 on:** 01/25/2022 04:35 pm »

Aphelion have relaunched as the new company 'Aphelion Aerospace', apparently with no changes to the basic technology or vehicle design, and are currently raising money through a crowd investment site called 'startengine'. Their startengine page says that they incorporated originally as 'Pheonix Launch Systems' in March 2019.

Kryten · « **Reply #44 on:** 01/25/2022 05:01 pm »

Incidentally I learned the company had been revived after seeing this video from their CEO;

Gliderflyer · « **Reply #45 on:** 01/25/2022 11:32 pm »

It probably doesn't need to be said, but just in case anyone is unsure: NEVER do what they did in that video.

trimeta · « **Reply #46 on:** 12/04/2023 05:00 am »

I was looking through various launch companies' websites, and I noticed that Aphelion Aerospace seems to have removed all references to their launch vehicle from theirs. It appears like they're now focusing on in-space propulsion. Does anyone by chance have more info?