Mon, Aug 09, 2004
Space Transport Was Considered "Underdog" In $10 Million Race
To Space
The dreams of two young men bent on making a dark horse run at
the Ansari X-Prize were dashed Sunday when their test vehicle
exploded on lift-off.
Phillip Storm and Eric Meier -- who, together, make up the
entire staff of Space Transport Corp. -- had hoped their Rubicon
spacecraft could compete with the likes of Burt Rutan's Scaled
Composites and Canada's da Vinci Project. But those hopes were
dashed in Queets (WA) Sunday when their Rubicon space vehicle
rained debris down on the beaches of the Pacific, reaching nowhere
near its intended height of approximately four miles.
"We're disappointed, but not extremely disappointed because this
was the first test flight," Storm said in a Seattle Times
interview. "NASA lost several rockets before they got something
good."
Storm and his partner are both 26-years old. They had hoped an
early demonstration of their Rubicon rocket would attract
investors. So far, they've reportedly raised about $220,000 --
mostly from family and friends.
"We're definitely the underdogs," Storm told the Times before
the launch. "We're underfunded and understaffed, but we think we've
got what it takes."
The spacecraft was powered by solid-fuel rockets and was
approximately 23-feet long. Sunday afternoon, it was in thousands
of pieces on the shore.
Yet, both Storm and Meier pledge their micro-company will
continue trying to launch a vehicle that can reach the edge of
outer space, 62 miles above us. That's exactly what X-Prize
Chairman Peter Diamandis hoped would come of encouraging small
companies to reach for the stars.
"We are living in a very risk-adverse society these days, which
is killing us!" Diamandis told ANN at Oshkosh earlier this month.
It's ridiculous that we should have to ground the shuttle every
time there's a failure. It's ridiculous that NASA is not taking the
same kinds of risks that these small companies. It's amazing that
only these small companies can innovate large corporations and
governments have become risk-adverse."
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