WASHINGTON -
Rocketplane Kistler President Randy Brinkley said Sept. 25 that the Oklahoma
City-based company already has found another firm willing to replace Orbital Sciences
Corp. as prime contractor for the K-1 reusable launch vehicle.
"We're very
comfortable with the new partner and think it's a good fit," Brinkley said.
Brinkley
declined to identify Rocketplane Kistler's new partner but said that the
unnamed U.S. company would take over Orbital Sciences' systems engineering and
integration role on the K-1 and make a strategic investment "equal to or
greater" than the $10 million Orbital had planned to bring to the table.
Rocketplane
Kistler was picked
by NASA in mid-August to receive $207 million under the Commercial
Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to help finance development
of the K-1 and conduct a series of international space station re-supply flight
demonstrations by the end of the decade. A separate $278 million COTS award
went to Rocketplane Kistler's rival, Space
Exploration Technologies of El Segundo, Calif.
Rocketplane
Kistler and Orbital Sciences had a strategic partnership that entailed Orbital
serving as the K-1's prime contractor and investing $10 million to help
re-start development of the rocket.
Orbital
spokesman Barron Beneski said Sept. 25 that the Dulles, Va.-based company was
parting ways with Rocketplane Kistler over a disagreement about the company's
business plans.
"We haven't
been able to agree on all the elements of the business plan so we will not be
part of the program going forward," Beneski said. "And of course as a result we
will not be investing the $10 million."
Brinkley
told Space News in a separate interview that the partnership fell apart
last week after Orbital Sciences "conditioned their investment" on making
design changes to the K-1 that Rocketplane Kistler found unacceptable.
Brinkley
declined to detail what changes Orbital wanted to make to the K-1, but said
they "involved a different configuration and different hardware, including
non-U.S. hardware."
"It was a
significant change to our K-1 baseline from what we agreed to with NASA in our
Space Act Agreement," Brinkley said. "After consultation with NASA regarding
the proposed changes and impact to our baseline, we decided to terminate the
strategic relationship."
Beneski
declined to comment further on the specifics of Orbital's and Rocketplane Kistler's
disagreement.
Brinkley
said losing Orbital Sciences as a strategic partner, while regrettable, would
not prevent Rocketplane Kistler from meeting its obligations under the COTS
Space Act Agreement it signed with NASA. That agreement makes continued NASA
funding of the K-1 contingent upon Rocketplane Kistler's ability to meet
regular programmatic, technical and financial milestones.
Rocketplane
Kistler estimates that completing the K-1 and conducting its COTS demonstration
flights will cost roughly $600 million. The company has pledged to NASA that it
would match its investment roughly two-to-one with outside capital.
Brinkley
said Rocketplane Kistler executives would be meeting with NASA officials Sept.
28 "to walk through where we are both programmatically as well as where we are
on the financial end."
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