Date: Sep 17, 2014 Source: Wisconsin
The novel rocket engine developed by Madison’s Orbital Technologies Corp., or Orbitec, was installed in a demonstration launch vehicle and shot it into the air over the Mojave Desert in this photo from 2012. The rocket engine, in the works for 15 years, is lighter in weight and less expensive to manufacture, Orbitec says, and could be used for future government space exploration, military purposes and commercial space travel.
A Madison-based company is getting in on NASA's first commercial space launches to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, but not as closely as it had hoped.
NASA announced Tuesday that it picked Boeing and SpaceX for the contracts, worth $6.8 billion.
That left SpaceX competitor Dream Chaser, which is tied in with Madison-based Orbital Technologies Corp., on the outside looking in.
The choice of Boeing and SpaceX is “very disappointing,” said Paul Zamprelli, business director of the company better known as Orbitec.
Orbitec was purchased by Sierra Nevada Corp., Dream Chaser’s developer, in July. The Madison company has been planning to make engines for the reusable Dream Chaser using nontoxic propellants, as well as other components for the space vehicle.
But NASA’s choice of SpaceX and Boeing is a partial win for Orbitec, because it is building the environmental control and life support system “to keep the astronauts alive” for Boeing, too, Zamprelli said. “We still are going to share in a lot of good business with Boeing,” he said. Zamprelli said he doesn’t think jobs will be lost at Orbitec, which has about 85 employees.
“This isn’t the end. There’s still a bright future for the Dream Chaser in commercial space,” Zamprelli said.
