Orbital To Pull Out of Rocketplane Kistler’s COTS Team

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WASHINGTON --- RocketplaneKistler's effort to restart development of the K-1 reusable rocket and conductfor NASA a series of International Space Station re-supply demonstrationflights has been dealt a setback with the loss of strategic partner OrbitalSciences Corp. and the approximately $10 million the Dulles, Va.-based companyhad pledged to bring to the table.

NASA picked OklahomaCity-based Rocketplane Kistler and El Segundo, Calif.-based Space ExplorationTechnologies (SpaceX) in mid-August from a field of six finalists to share $500million in funding the space agency plans to spend on the Commercial OrbitalTransportation Services (COTS) demonstration program through 2011.

Rocketplane Kistler haspledged to match NASA's $207 million investment in the K-1 roughly two-for-onewith outside capital. Upon winning the COTS contract, Rocketplane Kistlerannounced that Orbital Sciences Corp. was signing on as a strategic partner tomanage the K-1 development and contribute to Kistler's financing efforts with a$10 million investment.

"We haven't been able toagree on all the elements of the business plan so we will not be part of theprogram going forward," Orbital Sciences spokesman Barron Beneski said Sept.25. "And of course as a result we will not be investing the $10 million."

Brian Berger
Editor-in-Chief, SpaceNews

Brian Berger is the Editor-in-Chief of SpaceNews, a bi-weekly space industry news magazine, and SpaceNews.com. He joined SpaceNews covering NASA in 1998 and was named Senior Staff Writer in 2004 before becoming Deputy Editor in 2008. Brian's reporting on NASA's 2003 Columbia space shuttle accident and received the Communications Award from the National Space Club Huntsville Chapter in 2019. Brian received a bachelor's degree in magazine production and editing from Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.