Rocketplane Kistler expects funding by end of July [Update]

Randy Brinkley, president and CEO of Rocketplane Kistler, tells AvWeek that RpK expects to fulfill its private funding goal for the K-1 COTS program by the end of July: Rocketplane Kistler 'On Track' For Private Funding: Rocketplane Kistler late on funding as sister unit lays off key manager - Aviation Week - July.1.07 (subscription required).

However, in the meantime, they have laid off David Urie, who was both leading the Rocketplane XP project and assisting on the RpK side. He will be rehired once the funding is acquired.

RpK needs to raise $500M in private investment to complement the $207M that it will receive incrementally from NASA as it meets a sequence of milestones. In the original agreement, RpK was to have raised $120M by February and $380M more by September. For some reason, RpK's investment banker (Jeffries Quarterdeck) advised RpK to renegotiate that agreement with a goal instead of raising all $500M by the end of May, which did not happen. NASA is now giving them some extra time to get the rest of the money.

"We have not completed full funding, but we have a lead investor who has completed the due diligence, and we're on track to complete everything, the full $500 million, by the end of July," Brinkley says.

[Update: A reader sends a pointer to this article about the AvWeek news: Rocketplane Lays Off Manager, Seeks $50M - OKG News.com.]

Posted 07/02/07 | 04:11:01 by TopSpacer | Filed under: Commercial ISS Resupply

Comments

ROFL. Try not to choke on Elon's dust, fellas.

Posted by Chuck Marlboro Beefstein at 07/02/07 07:03:31

I hope they find the needed funding as the K1 looks like it would be a very good vehicle and is the only COTS craft that can perform large orbital boosting manoeuvres for ISS that are now performed by the shuttle.
Also the K1 orbital vehicle is a very high performance stage if given upgraded heat sheilds and refueled even just partly on orbit or launched on an HLV it could perform lunar missions.

Posted by Ruri at 07/02/07 08:00:31

If David Urie was let go, that must mean that the rest of the Rockeplane staff was laid off too. I would guess we have just seen the death of the Rocketplane half of RpK.

Posted by Anon at 07/02/07 08:13:06

I wonder how chuck Lauer will spin this?

Posted by james lee at 07/02/07 08:24:31

Unfortunately, Rocketplane Kistler's financial instability must lend credibility to those who argue for government-owned space transportation to ISS.

Posted by John Kavanagh at 07/02/07 08:32:24

K-1 is an old-school design with limited to nonexistent commercial prospects, and the enfeebled company trying to build it has a long record of financial incompetence. Even if they managed to get full financing, which is uncertain; and even if that was sufficient to complete the vehicle, which is unlikely; no one in their right mind would trust this organization to cost-effectively implement operations. It was a noble undertaking from an earlier, transitional epoch, but it must yield to faster creatures who breathe fire and ride the whirlwind.

Posted by Brian Swiderski at 07/02/07 09:06:50

They should not have won the COTS contract in the first place. They burned through almost a billion USD without getting anything off the ground. With that kind of burn rate a mere 250 million USD will not make a difference.

I think after Kistler defaults on the contract (which is only a question of time) space activists should lobby to get the money reassigned to another alt.space company such as T/Space.

T/Space demonstrated by the effective way they used the study funding to conduct drop tests that they have got what it takes.

Posted by Anonymous at 07/02/07 11:05:28

I would be very curious to know where the hell all that money went. Oh, wait, now I remember--they made ATK their lead contractor, who in turn subcontracted out to every other dinosaur in the industry. The only reason I can imagine for selecting such a bid would be to keep Congress from cutting the program.

Posted by Brian Swiderski at 07/02/07 12:39:25

watch for lots more news regarding RPK -and all the technical layoffs due to "lack of funds". This is becoming an interesting story and would make a great space soap opera!

Posted by anon at 07/02/07 14:17:01

Elon must be enjoying every minute as he watches the ship of his sole competitor sinks beneath the waves. It's a shame RPK can't keep the water from gushing through its hull since I wanted to see if a fully reusable orbital rocket could be made to work well. This just proves that management and economic wisdom is just as important as engineering talent.

Posted by hop at 07/02/07 16:22:38

I doubt Elon is enjoying this. The moment RpK dies, the majors have every reason to call their Washington courtesans and get the COTS program defunded.

Posted by Brian Swiderski at 07/02/07 19:30:21

Its sad that RpK was selected in the first place. They put the private orbital efforts in the bad light, and may indeed endanger the entire COTS program.

company that has burned billions with nothing on the pad ..

Posted by reader at 07/03/07 03:45:38

RpK is under a different level of scrutiny than Elon. Elon is playing with his own money and only tells the public what he wants them to hear. It sounds like to me that if NASA has done their homework and the investors willing to put up their own money, then they must have something that we're not seeing!

Think about it, if they "pissed away" billions and have nothing to show for it, then who are these investors willing to throw their money down the drain? That just doesn't sound right to me. People with that kind of money to invest have money for a reason, they know what they're doing!

Elon got lucky and was at the right place at the right time like a lot of other dotcommers. He has his own money and his own vision and can do whatever he wants with his money. And I agree with Brian Swiderski; Elon would have to be crazy to wish bad luck on RpK. If RpK fails, it's going to cause a major rush from the COTS losers grasping at dollars and will turn the support from NASA and Congress away from his future.

Posted by anon at 07/05/07 22:27:43

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