SpaceX’s Elon Musk didn’t say anything really new in his speech yesterday at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, at least compared to his address last week at a satellite conference in Washington. However, there is one new development that he did not mention in his speech. As reported by socalTECH.com yesterday, SpaceX has raised an additional $15 million in funding through the sale of company stock, part of a planned $60-million round. The article cites an SEC filing that also states that seven investors have already invested in the offering, but does not name them, nor provides any other details about the deal (including how big a stake in the company SpaceX is selling.)
This is not the first time SpaceX has raised outside funding: in August SpaceX raised $20 million from the Founders Fund, a VC firm that includes a number of managing partners who, like Musk, are alumni of PayPal. At that time Musk said the funding was to “top of the war chest” to ensure that the company had enough money on hand to do another three launches. He said that if Flight 4 failed the company would then raise more money; Flight 4, launched in late September, was a success. What SpaceX plans to do with this latest round is unclear.
Virgin Galactic issued a press release today about the third flight of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, which took place on Wednesday. Some highlights:
The flight’s duration was over 2.5 hours.
WK2 reached its fastest speed yet, 140 knots (259 km/h)
The aircraft flew to an altitude of over 18,000 feet (5,490 feet)
The flight features seven other tests, including in-flight engine restarts and “engine thrust asymmetry assessment”
The press release didn’t include any information about plans for future flight tests, beyond a quote from Richard Branson: ” I am looking forward to flying myself in Eve in the next few weeks before we attach SpaceShipTwo later in the year and begin test flights to space shortly afterwards!”
The text of the press release is below, and additional images and videos are on Virgin Galactic’s web site.
TEST FLYING PROGRAMME FOR VIRGIN GALACTIC SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM NOW FULLY UNDERWAY – MOTHERSHIP EVE ACHIEVES FASTEST AND LONGEST YET FLIGHT IN THE TROPOSPHERE
WhiteKnightTwo launch vehicle for SpaceShipTwo heralds a new era in aerospace fuel efficiency, performance and versatility
Mojave Air and Spaceport, California
25th March 2009
The test flying programme for WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), the space launch vehicle being developed for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) has now completed its third successful test flight – the longest and fastest to date with a duration of over two and half hours, maximum speed of 140 knots and an altitude of over 18,000 ft. The flight also saw a further 7 tests successfully completed including in flight engine restarts, engine thrust asymmetry assessment and continued expansion of WK2’s operating envelope and evaluation of WK2’s handling qualities.
In addition to launching SS2, the WK2 also has a range of science payload and training applications including the potential to launch an unmanned rocket capable of putting a satellite into low Earth orbit.
Test pilot Peter Siebold who also piloted the first two missions said:
“This is a truly remarkable aviation vehicle and, although it might look unique from the ground it is not strange to fly in any way and is in fact a great piloting experience. Now the stratosphere is the limit as we will continually test Eve (WK2) for the next few months up to her ceiling of above 50,000 ft.”
Christened “EVE” in honor of Sir Richard Branson’s mother, WK2 is both visually remarkable and represents ground-breaking aerospace technology. It is the world’s largest all carbon composite aircraft and many of its component parts have been built using composite materials for the very first time. At 140 ft, the wing spar is, we believe, the longest single carbon composite aviation structural component ever manufactured.
Driven by a demanding performance specification set by Virgin Galactic, WK2 has a unique heavy lift, high altitude capability and an open architecture driven design which provides for maximum versatility in the weight, mass and volume of its payload potential. It has the power, strength and manoeuvrability to provide for pre space-flight, positive G force and zero G astronaut training as well as a lift capability which is over 30% greater than that represented by a fully crewed SpaceShipTwo. The vehicle has a maximum altitude over 50,000 ft and its U.S. coast-to-coast range will allow the spaceship to be ferried on long duration flights.
An all carbon composite vehicle of this size represents a giant leap for a material technology that has already been identified as a key contributor to the increasingly urgent requirement by the commercial aviation sector for dramatically more fuel efficient aircraft. Powered by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines, which are amongst the most powerful, economic and efficient available, WK2 is a mold breaker in carbon efficiency and the epitome of 21st century aerospace design and technology.
The twin fuselage and central payload area configuration allow for easy access to WK2 and to the spaceship for passengers and crew; the design also aids operational efficiencies and turnaround times. WK2 will be able to support up to four daily space flights, is able to carry out both day and night time operations and is equipped with a package of highly advanced avionics.
Commenting on the flights, Burt Rutan, Founder of Scaled Composites said:
“WhiteKnightTwo really is an impressive vehicle and it represents the apogee of the application of carbon composites to aerospace, all of us at Scaled are tremendously excited by its capabilities. I believe the vehicle will be developed and sold for a variety of launch applications beyond the initial requirements of Virgin Galactic.”
Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic added:
“As usual, Burt and the team have created a beauty that also flies really well and this is a very proud day for us all! These first flights of WK2 take the Virgin Galactic vision up another level and continue to provide tangible evidence that this most ambitious of projects is not only for real but is making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation. I am looking forward to flying myself in Eve in the next few weeks before we attach SpaceShipTwo later in the year and begin test flights to space shortly afterwards!
Virgin Galactic is central to our ambition at Virgin to become the world’s leading group in the operation of energy and environmentally efficient transportation, in the air, on the ground and in space.”
Compared to the good ol’ days (2001), a space tourist flying to the ISS these days is a little, well, ho-hum. Back in 2001 there was all the drama associated with whether NASA would allow Dennis Tito to fly to the station on a Soyuz, and if so, what sort of reception he would get when he got there. Today, while tourist visits to the ISS are far from routine, there’s enough of a precedent that the flight has to be particularly special to capture much attention—and in this case, with Charles Simonyi being the first tourist to make a return trip, it registers only modestly on the media’s radar.
The flight has also gotten some attention because Simonyi might be the “last” space tourist, at least for some time. Space Adventures’ Eric Anderson tells SPACE.com that there’s a slim chance of some flight opportunities in 2010 or 2011, but the company appears to be basing its future plans on a dedicated flight in 2011 or 2012.
Assuming there are future flight opportunities, either next year or in a few years, one person who appears interested—and has more than enough money to pay for the trip—is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The AP reports that Allen, who was at Baikonur to watch Thursday’s launch, said he was interested in following Simonyi into orbit at some point. “It’s a few years off,” he told the AP.
Space tourism companies (with the exception of Astrium, as previously noted) have remained optimistic about their prospects despite the current economic crisis. Virgin Galactic’s Will Whitehorn said last month that they continued to sign up customers and had nearly 300 at the time, with only a few asking for their deposits back. XCOR had also reported strong interest in ticket sales for its Lynx flights through RocketShip Tours.
However, there is still the specter of the financial crisis looming over anything even remotely considered a luxury or otherwise not essential. A more pessimistic viewpoint came during the Satellite Finance Forum on Tuesday in Washington DC, part of the Satellite 2009 conference. Maury Mechanick, a lawyer with extensive experience in the satellite industry, flagged tourism as an area of concern during a presentation at the conference. Mechanick, who called himself “a frustrated astronaut from about the age of 9″, said he found space tourism very interesting, and had been studying it for the last couple of years. However, “you take a look at the Virgin Galactic business plan, which is for a mere $200,000 you too can get a half an hour suborbital ride into space,” he said, makes you wonder just how many people out there can afford such a trip today. “I’ve really got to scratch my head and raise some questions.”
This leads him to suggest the opening of the suborbital space tourism market might be put off for some time. “2009 and 2010 may not be the time when this happens,” he said. “It may be put off for a few years and maybe it will never happen if the price points stay at this level.”
Rob Coppinger reported this week that Astrium has put on hold “indefinitely” its plans for a suborbital spaceplane. Astrium, a division of European aerospace giant EADS, announced plans for the “space jet” at the Paris Air Show in 2007, but there had been little visible progress in the vehicle’s development since then, beyond some propulsion work, as Astrium tried to raise a significant amount of money—on the order of €1 billion—to proceed with the vehicle’s development. According to Coppinger, Astrium decided in January to put the project on hold, blaming the “world economic situation” for making it difficult to secure funding. (Astrium, though, has kept the space plane section on its web site.)
So is this a sign of retrenchment in the space tourism market? Not necessarily. Astrium stood out as an exception: a large, established company in a market dominated by small entrepreneurial firms, who believe they can develop their vehicles for a small fraction of Astrium’s estimated cost (and in today’s market it’s difficult for any company to raise over a billion dollars for any kind of venture). Some suggested that Astrium was not interested in space tourism at all, instead looking at other applications for the vehicle or as a testbed for technology development, like LOX/methane engines.
WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier aircraft for SpaceShipTwo, took to the skies on Wednesday afternoon, according to several observers in Mojave. No word yet on the technical details associated with the flight, including flight time, altitude, etc. This was the first flight since February 5th and the third overall; the first was on December 21.
Elon Musk was the luncheon speaker Tuesday at the Satellite 2009 conference in Washington. His speech was a general overview of what SpaceX is doing on both the Falcon launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft, but he did offer a few new and interesting items:
Musk said that SpaceX has 19 Falcon 9 orders (12 of which under NASA’s commercial ISS resupply program), a number that he said would “soon” be 21. He didn’t offer any details on the two new orders other than that they are not for US Government customers. He did add (given the audience of primarily commercial satellite professionals) that the commercial launch market was “important” to SpaceX, and that the company was in negotiations with several potential customers.
The first Falcon 9 launch is scheduled for this summer. Musk said after his speech that the biggest obstacle to an on-time launch this summer is the fairing and fairing separation system for the rocket, which SpaceX is doing in-house. He also said that SpaceX hopes to do 2-3 Falcon 9 launches this year and 4-5 next year.
The next Falcon 1 launch is scheduled for April 21, when it will launch Malaysia’s Razaksat from Omelek Island; the satellite arrived in Kwajalein just within the last few days. Musk did note that the launch might slip towards the end of the month.
Musk noted in passing that he hopes that NASA will “turn on” the option for Capability D (human space transportation) in its COTS agreement with SpaceX this year, but didn’t go into further details about the prospects for getting that done.
After his speech he said that SpaceX is not affected by PlanetSpace’s protest of the commercial resupply contracts NASA awarded in December to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation. Musk said that PlanetSpace has dropped its protest of the SpaceX award but is continuing to pursue its protest of the Orbital award: SpaceX scored better than the other two companies on technical and financial merits, but PlanetSpace did better than Orbital. Thus, he said, even if the GAO sides with PlanetSpace in its protest, it should not affect the SpaceX contract.
India’s Express News Service reported last week that Santhosh George Kulangara is under investigation by India’s Income Tax Department for possible tax evasion. Kulangara, managing director of Labour India Group Publications, is also frequently identified as India’s first space tourist since he is one of Virgin Galactic’s first 100 customers, aka “Founders”. He was not at home or work at the time of the raids: the “travel freak” was on an expedition to Antarctica, according to the report.
As dire as his predicament is, it pales in comparison to Jay Patel, who also claims to be the first Indian space tourist: you see, he’s either the victim or perpetrator of a scam. Patel claims that he’ll be flying into space this November or next January at the latest along with a Russian, Sergei Polonsky (who previously sought to fly to the ISS)—and John Travolta.
Who will be flying this trio? PanAero, on its “Space Van 2010″. There is a PanAero, but the company never progressed beyond vehicle concepts and its founder, Len Cormier, passed away last June. The article also claims that PanAero “got approval from NASA” last week, another giant red flag.
It’s not clear whether Patel has fallen for some scheme or he’s knowingly promoting something that isn’t going to happen. What is clear, though, is that Daily News and Analysis, the Indian site that published this report, doesn’t have much of a factchecking department.
As you may have already heard, space tourism pioneer Tom Rogers passed away last week at the age of 85. Rogers had been in poor health and out of public view for the last few years, but for much of the 1990s and early 2000s—after a long career in public service—he was one of the leading advocates of space tourism during an era when it suffered from the so-called “snicker factor”: the snickering or open laughter the topic generated when the topic was discussed in space industry events. That snicker factor has disappeared, and Tom Rogers played a key role in helping eliminate it.
Look for more comments about Rogers and his work at NASA Watch and Transterrestrial Musings. At some point I will dig through some of my old notes from his speeches from around the turn of the decade and see what gems I can find.
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