Spaceflight

NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration programme competitor Rocketplane-Kistler (RpK) president Randy Brinkley is to meet potential investors at the Space Commerce Roundtable’s Space Investment Summit in New York next month.

Oklahoma based RpK is developing its two-stage fully reusable K-1 rocket for COTS. The sponsors of Space Commerce Roundtable, who expect to attract up to 100 investors to the event, are Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin, Alcatel Alenia Space, MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates and Honeywell.

©Rocketplane-Kistler
Above: RpK's K-1 rocket launches

“Rocketplane-Kistler is providing an investor speaker and [its president] Randy Brinkley will be there. We have been talking to them. They are well represented, it is a combined [Brinkley/investor] presentation,” says Boeing space exploration systems’ international business development and commercial strategist and investor event organiser, Paul Eckert.

The event is being held on 16 and 17 April at the Ritz Carlton hotel and New York Information Technology Center.

RpK’s COTS competitor, California-based Space Exploration Technologies, has announced that following its 21 March local time launch from the Pacific ocean’s Omelek island, its Falcon 1 rocket is now commercially operational. This is despite the second stage engine shutting down 90s too early at T+7.5min due to a propellant slosh induced oscillation, and its subsequent uncontrolled de-orbit. The next Falcon 1 flight is planned to launch the US Navy’s TacSat 1 satellite in September.