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| Thursday / 2 March 2006 | ||
Rocketplane
Acquires Kistler, Adds Orbital Vehicle. George
French, Jr., CEO and majority owner of Rocketplane
Limited, Inc., has purchased Kistler
Aerospace Corp. for an undisclosed price. The most significant
result for Rocketplane, an Oklahoma-based commercial spaceflight
company, is the addition of Kistler's fully reusable orbital K 1
launch vehicle. Up to this point, Rocketplane's focus has been
on its suborbital Rocketplane XP space plane. "The Rocketplane
Kistler team will provide unique suborbital and orbital commercial
space transportation services for passengers and cargo through
its fleet of highly reliable, cost-effective and reusable aerospace
vehicles," according to the
Rocketplane press
release. With its acquisition, Rocketplane expects to be able
to play a larger role in the Vision for Space Exploration. One
of French's first plans for Kistler is to submit a proposal to
NASA COTS for ISS crew and cargo resupply. "Rocketplane
Kistler has a unique chance of making commercial space viable by
reducing the cost to orbit and by building a fleet of cargo-carrying
vehicles for transport to LEO, Space Station and beyond," says
French. Rocketplane plans to move Kistler's headquarters from Seattle
WA to Oklahoma City. Rocketplane made news earlier this month when
it entered into an agreement with
a Japan research group, Hokkaido
Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center (HASTIC).
Once successfully tested, the suborbital
Rocketplane XP will conduct research flights and launch satellites
into space for HASTIC.
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