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Rocketplane Limited, Inc. was a spacecraft design and development company headquartered in
De Pere De Pere ( ) is a city located in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 25,410 according to the 2020 Census. De Pere is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area. History At the arrival of the first European, J ...
,
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. After filing for bankruptcy, the company reincorporated as
Rocketplane Global Inc. Rocketplane Global Inc. is a reusable rocketplane aerospace design and development company incorporated in Delaware. History Rocketplane Limited, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the state of Oklahoma on 16 July 2001. After going bankrup ...


History

Rocketplane Limited, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the state of
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
on 16 July 2001. After going bankrupt, it was bought out of bankruptcy, and renamed to Rocketplane Global. As of April, 2017, it is incorporated in Delaware. The corporation's founders envisioned building a rocketplane that would send passengers more than 330,000 feet (100 km) above the Earth and launch satellites. In 2004, Rocketplane Limited 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 Global Inc. Rocketplane Global Inc. is a reusable rocketplane aerospace design and development company incorporated in Delaware. History Rocketplane Limited, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the state of Oklahoma on 16 July 2001. After going bankrup ...
(A Delaware company) is the current name of the company. Rocketplane Global Inc. is the successor of
Pioneer Rocketplane Pioneer Rocketplane was an aerospace design and development company intent on developing affordable crewed space flight. The company is most famous for advocating a horizontal takeoff, turbo-jet and rocket propelled, aerial-refueled, rocket plan ...
, Rocketplane Limited of Oklahoma, Rocketplane Kistler, and Rocketplane Global LLC. Pioneer Rocketplane and Rocketplane Kistler have been dissolved. Kistler Space Systems has replaced the Kistler part of Rocketplane Kistler. Rocketplane Kistler owned the intellectual property of Pioneer. George French, CEO of Rocketplane Limited, announced on 27 February 2006 that he was purchasing Kistler Aerospace for an undisclosed sum, and renaming it
Rocketplane Kistler Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) was a reusable launch system firm originally based in Oklahoma. It was formed in 2006 after Rocketplane Limited, Inc. acquired Kistler Aerospace. NASA announced that Rocketplane Kistler had been chosen to develop crew an ...
. 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 The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
under the
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
COTS (
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) was a NASA program to coordinate the development of vehicles for the delivery of crew and cargo to the International Space Station by private companies. The program was announced on January 18, 200 ...
) program. This contract was awarded jointly to
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
and Rocketplane Kistler on 18 August 2006.


Space tourism

Rocketplane Limited intended to fly
space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...
flights using the
Rocketplane XP The Rocketplane XP was a suborbital spaceplane design that was under development c. 2005 by Rocketplane Kistler. The vehicle was to be powered by two jet engines and a rocket engine, intended to enable it to reach suborbital space. The XP would ...
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 Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G. Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fi ...
, with an
apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...
of over 100 kilometers
altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
.


Bankruptcy

Space News, Aviation Week and the
Oklahoma Gazette The ''Oklahoma Gazette'' is a free alt-weekly paper distributed throughout the Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. T ...
reported layoffs and funding problems. These publications reported, "Rocketplane Kistler officials failed to meet a funding deadline mandated by a NASA contract to build a reusable rocket ..." Space News reported in a June 25, 2007 story, "... if RpK ocketplane Kistlermisses the new deadline, it would be the fourth time the company has gone back to NASA and requested an extension." On October 18, 2007, NASA discontinued its agreement with Rocketplane Kistler, and announced that the remaining $175 million commitment to the project would be made available to other companies. On October 19, the company appealed the decision, and asked NASA to reconsider the termination or, alternatively, pay $10 million in costs incurred to date. In February 2009, Rocketplane vacated its Oklahoma City headquarters building. According to Oklahoma State Representative David Dank, Rocketplane no longer has any presence in the state, but they left with no debt owing to Oklahoma. Rocketplane filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidation in July 2010.


Out of bankruptcy

In 2011 Rocketplane Limited's assets were sold in an auction and bought by George French and John Burgener. The assets were rolled into the new company Rocketplane Global LLC, based in De Pere, Wisconsin. Focus moved from passenger flights with the XP spaceplane to satellites with the Pathfinder / XS larger rocketplane. Rocketplane Global significantly updated and revised the Pathfinder plans to submit a bid for DARPA's XS-1 program, but did not win a contract. Rocketplane Global moved its state of incorporation to Delaware in April, 2017, to allow for better financing opportunities.


Recent History

Rocketplane Global Inc. has one of the most affordable designs to provide reusable launch services for small to medium satellites. With an expected retail price of $20 million per launch, and a 2,000 kg payload to LEO, Rocketplane Global can provide launch services at half the present retail pricing on launches. Rocketplane Global has agreements to launch over 100 satellites starting in 2021 - 2022 if it can obtain sufficient funding in 2017.


The XS design

Rocketplane Global's XS design follows on the work done on the XP passenger vehicle and continues using jet engines for take off and flight to altitude. It then loads on LOX and fuel from a tanker airplane, and then fires its rocket engines and flies to 100+ km, where it releases a second stage booster to carry the satellite(s) to orbit. With a totally reusable first stage, and an expendable second stage, the costs are minimized and the system is more reliable than trying to land vertical take off and landing rockets.


See also

* Black Horse (rocket) *
List of private spaceflight companies This article is a list of non-governmental, or privately owned, entities focused on developing and/or offering equipment and services geared towards spaceflight, both robotic and human. The list includes both inactive and active entities. Comme ...
*
Rocketplane Kistler Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) was a reusable launch system firm originally based in Oklahoma. It was formed in 2006 after Rocketplane Limited, Inc. acquired Kistler Aerospace. NASA announced that Rocketplane Kistler had been chosen to develop crew an ...
*
Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company i ...


References


External links


Company home pageRocketplane Global Talks to the Space Fellowship about the New Rocketplane XP configuration
– International Space Fellowship {{Space tourism Space tourism Private spaceflight companies Space access Companies established in 2001 Aerospace companies of the United States