is an
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 which 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 .
See Also: Rocketplane XP
Rocketplane Limited intends to fly
Space Tourism flights using the
Rocketplane XP spaceplane it is building. It had announced plans to fly the XP in 2007, but on
August 31 ,
2007 its chief executive officer said test flights will begin in 2009 and commercial flights will begin in 2010.
1 For a price of about US$200,000, passengers will be able to purchase one ticket for a seat on a suborbital flight, including 4 minutes of
Weightlessness , with an
Apogee of over 100
Kilometers Altitude .
Space News, Aviation Week and the Oklahoma Gazette have reported layoffs and funding problems.
Theses publications report, "Rocketplane officials failed to meet a funding
deadline mandated by a NASA contract to build a reusable rocket...."
The Oklahoma Gazette has written several stories on Rocketplane including a June 13, 2007
front page featured cover story entitled "PIE in the SKY" and lead with "It's been eight years
since Rocketplane wooed the state with creating space tourism. Oklahoma taxpayers gave the
the company $18 million. So where is the ship?" The Gazette has also reported report diverted
funds and the layoff of the Oklahoma work force.
Space News reported in a June 25, 2007 story, "...if RpK
Kistler misses the new deadline, it would be the fourth time the company has gone back to NASA and requested an
extension."
