Rocketplane Limited, Inc.
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| Private | |
| Industry | Aerospace and defense |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA |
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Key people
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George D. French Jr., CEO, David Urie, VP/PM-resigned, John Herrington, VP/Flight Operations-resigned |
| Products | Suborbital spacecraft Space systems |
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Number of employees
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30 (as of 2005-12-01) |
| Website | www.rocketplane.com |
Rocketplane Limited, Inc. is a defunct aerospace design and development company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with facilities in Guthrie, Oklahoma and Burns Flat, Oklahoma.
Rocketplane Limited, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the state of Oklahoma on 16 July 2001. The corporation’s founders envisioned building a rocketplane that would send passengers more than 330,000 feet (100 km) above the Earth. In 2004, Rocketplane was designated a Qualified Space Transportation Provider by the State of Oklahoma under the guidelines specified in SB 817. With this designation, the State of Oklahoma awarded to Rocketplane re-sellable tax credits that were used to initiate operations, develop facilities, and recruit the required engineering staff.
Rocketplane Limited, Inc. is not the same company as Pioneer Rocketplane. Pioneer still exists on paper, but is no longer operating. Rocketplane Limited owns the intellectual property of Pioneer, but none of the principals of Pioneer, including its founder, work for Rocketplane Limited at this time.
George French, CEO of Rocketplane, announced on 27 February 2006 that he was purchasing Kistler Aerospace for an undisclosed sum, and renaming it Rocketplane Kistler. Kistler Aerospace had designed and begun construction of the K-1 launch vehicle, a fully reusable two-stage to orbit launcher, but filed for bankruptcy before the vehicle could be completed. French used the K-1 to bid for commercial crew and cargo resupply contracts to the International Space Station under the NASA COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) program. This contract was awarded jointly to SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler on 18 August 2006.
Rocketplane Limited intended to fly space tourism flights using the Rocketplane XP spaceplane it was building. It had announced plans to fly the XP in 2007, but on August 31, 2007 its chief executive officer, Calvin Burgess, said test flights would be delayed until 2009 and commercial flights were pushed back until at least 2010. Rocketplane anticipated ticket prices of US$200,000 for a seat on a suborbital flight, including 4 minutes of weightlessness, with an apogee of over 100 kilometers altitude.
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Wikipedia