WASHINGTON -- Rotary Rocket announced June 26 that its founder, Gary Hudson, is stepping down as CEO and that the company is postponing work on what it hoped would be the world's first reusable single-stage-to-orbit commercial booster.
The moves come about three years after the company unveiled its Roton piloted space vehicle (pictured), an ungainly propeller-topped rocket that was planned to enter commercial service in 2002.
Hudson, the company's founder, plans to return to aerospace consulting. He has worked in commercial space for 25 years.
Hudson told SPACE.com at a space tourism conference in Washington that Rotary Rocket made a number of significant contributions to space transportation through its Roton.
"We had one outstanding failure…the failure being the financing," he said.
"People think that it was just a big helicopter, which it was not. It had everything in it necessary to go to space except the propulsion and control system and thermal protection which, of course, is a big part," Hudson said.
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The vehicle did demonstrate the ability to carry the fuel necessary for a single-stage rocket to reach orbit, he said.
Piloted by a crew of two, the Roton would carry as much as 7,000 pounds (3,180 kilograms) to low Earth orbit.
Once a payload was deployed into orbit, the Roton would make use of an innovative nose-mounted rotor during descent to Earth. The "beanie cap" propellers were to help stabilize the craft to a soft touchdown.
Several
tests of the Roton were done over its three-and-a-half years of development.
Last October, the Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle made a nine-minute, 45-second flight that took it to an altitude of 75 feet (23 meters) and a distance of 4,300 feet (1,310 meters) on an airport runway in Mojave, California.
Despite the rocket's shortcoming, the company "changed the debate in human spaceflight," Hudson said. Rotary Rocket, for example, was first to tackle the regulatory issues swirling around piloted commercial space transportation, he said.
The company's largest investor was Gold & Appel, SA, led by millionaire Walt Anderson, who also has invested in renovation of the Russian
Mir space station.
Hudson said recent billion-dollar flops of
Iridium and other low Earth orbit constellations made it impossible to acquire needed funds from Wall Street backers.
"Wall Street has a long memory," he said. "There's no taking it any further. You get to a point where the financial market places say to you that they're not going to fund this."
Onward and upward?
Helena Hardman, Rotary Rocket's acting chief executive officer in San Bruno, California, said the company would continue to operate.
"Rotary's goal continues to be safe, low-cost manned spaceflight," she said.
The company is now developing a business plan, forming a management team and crafting short-term plans. Details of the firm's next steps will be discussed in a few months, she said.
As for Roton entering into commercial service in 2002 as advertised, "that will not be the case," she said.
"We just need to slow the whole thing down and get it right," Hardman said. "Rotary Rocket wants to take smaller steps to reach its ultimate goal of building a safe, low-cost manned vehicle."
Hudson's decision to step down was a "very personal choice," Hardman said. "For Gary, it's a very frustrating place to be, asked to sit in front of the banks and explain the story again and again. It's like hitting your head against a brick wall."
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