Vector Space Systems
| Private | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Headquarters | Tucson, Arizona |
|
Key people
|
Jim Cantrell, CEO and co-founder |
| Website | Official website |
Vector Space Systems is an American space technology company which aims to launch small satellites into orbit with its eponymous family of small launch vehicles.
The company’s CEO is Jim Cantrell, who co-founded the company with John Garvey, Ken Sunshine, and Eric Besnard. Cantrell had previously helped Elon Musk found SpaceX in 2002, but left shortly afterward, viewing it as unlikely to turn a profit. Vector Space Systems received $1 million in seed angel funding soon after its launch in 2016 and additionally $21 million from Sequoia Capital, Shasta Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners in June 2017. It has offices in Tucson, Arizona, and an engineering facility in Huntington Beach, California. In July 2016, Vector acquired Garvey Spacecraft, and began designing rockets based on Garvey’s designs. The company is also investing in software capabilities. It has a platform called Galactic Sky, located in San Jose, California, which makes software-defined satellites to provide start-ups and entrepreneurs with satellite capabilities. In 2017, it signed a letter of intent to collaborate with a cryptocurrency company, called Nexus, that is attempting to develop a satellite-supported currency exchange system. In 2016 York Space Systems signed a $60 million launch deal with Vector, to launch six satellites into orbit.
As of 2017[update] Vector Space plans to use the LC-46 launch site in Florida for its Vector-R rocket starting in 2018. Additionally Vector Space investigates adding more minimal infrastructure launch pads either located on land in the USA using mobile semi-trailers as tank trucks and a transporter erector launcher (TEL), or to launch the rocket from barges on the ocean.
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Wikipedia