Rocketplane shoots for space trips by 2007

Alan Boyle Science editor • Profile • E-mail

An Oklahoma space-travel company says it is aiming to win the race to put paying passengers on suborbital trips, with commercial flights scheduled to begin by early 2007.

"We intend to make it a five-star experience," said David Urie, vice president of Rocketplane Ltd.

Urie discussed his company's ambitions this week during a meeting of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority and a follow-up telephone interview with MSNBC.com.

Rocketplane is working on the plans to convert a twin-engine LearJet into a hybrid space plane. The Rocketplane XP craft would use a jet engine to take off from the former Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base at Burns Flat, Okla., which has the country's fourth-longest runway. When the plane reaches an altitude of 22,000 feet, a rocket engine in the tail would kick in — shooting the pilot and two passengers above the 62-mile (100-kilometer) mark, which is considered the boundary of outer space.

From that height, the fliers could see the earth's curvature beneath the blackness of space — then come back down for a conventional horizontal landing.

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"We'll provide maybe three to four minutes of a sensation of weightlessness between the time the rocket shuts down and you encounter thick air again," Urie said. The flight itself would last about 45 minutes, but the tour package would also include four days of health tests and training, plus an after-flight banquet.

The plans put Rocketplane in competition with several other spaceship developers who are also working toward beginning service in the 2007-2008 time frame:

• Virgin Galactic is taking reservations for suborbital flight packages beginning in 2008, with an estimated price tag of $200,000.
• Aera Corp. has announced a schedule to begin commercial launches from Cape Canaveral by the end of 2006 and is taking reservations for $150,000 flight packages.
• PlanetSpace plans to have its Canadian Arrow spaceship ready for suborbital service by mid-2007, at a target price of $250,000 per seat.
• Blue Origin says it plans to begin testing its vertical-takeoff-and-landing spaceship in West Texas next year, with commercial flights anticipated three to five years later.

Urie said his company was aiming to win the commercial space race by capitalizing on solid expertise and financial support: "The one thing we have going is that I set out to build a company and not a vehicle, and I have recruited a very strong team of solid aerospace professionals."

The bulk of Rocketplane's private investment so far has come from George French, the company's president and chief executive officer, Urie said. The company has also benefited from the resale of marketable investment tax credits provided in a $15 million deal with the state of Oklahoma. "That contributed a substantial amount to our start-up funding," he said.

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