Staying Alive in a Growing Market

Chuck Lauer (Rocketplane)
- Lots of ups and downs in this business
- Reviewed early days of Rocketplane, e.g. X PRIZE entry, LEO comsat delivery, etc.
- Kistler was quite successful in raising several hundred million dollars during the 1990s for the LEO satcom service market.
- Then LEO comsat constellations went down. And the new launch companies mostly went down with them.
- Tito's flight and X PRIZE program made tourism legitimate and presented launch companies with a market
- O Prize - Oklahoma R&D investment tax credit to bring aerospace jobs to the state.
-- 19 companies competed. Rocketplane won for the XP suborbital project
-- Went down to wire on Dec.31st 2003 when the law would expire.
-- Got necessary approvals on the final day a few minutes before tax office closed.
- Spaceport Oklahoma - $1 Billion in infrastructure. Big FAA approved airpsace. No military or federal restrictions.
- Point-to-Point is a big potential market.
- Could be virtually anywhere the world in 2 hours via a hug in Anchorage
- Still fighting for the RpK orbital project
- Will unwrap new XP design on Friday

Noah McMahon (ZERO-G)
- Over 3000 customers so far.
- Occasionally have to turn down strange requests
- Whole flights can be chartered.
- So new it is quite difficult to describe to someone unfamiliar with the concept
- Educational market has been strong and rewarding.
- Four hundred teachers were flown this past summer. Next year hope to fly 1000.
- Space Florida has been a great partner. Flying out of KSC has been a success.
- Hope soon to get the NASA contract to do their parabolic flights.
- Sharper Image partnership has been a big promotional hit.
- Stephen Hawking flew and brought home the message that anyone can do it.
-- Planned to do just one parabola but he insisted on doing more and they flew 8 total.

Jerry Larson (UP Aerospace)
- Company overview:
-- Rapid launch turnaround
-- Small launch crew
-- Low cost
-- SpaceLoft XL launch system
-- Flight to 73 miles altitude
-- Modular payload system - send module canisters to the customers and they do the integration. UPA only has to insert them into the vehicle.
- Payloads:
-- science
-- high school and college
-- personal items
-- sub-system testing
-- marketing promotions.
- Launch facilities at the site of the NM spaceport.
- Shows the video of launches SL-1 last Sept. and SL-2 in April.
-- For SL-2 Celestis placed cremated remains on board.
-- After a lengthy search they found the capsule and returned the payloads to their owners.

Rich Pournelle (XCOR Aerospace)
- Factors important in success for XCOR:
-- The Time is Now:
-- NewSpace hardware is actually flying now.
-- Much easier now to make things at small companies. E.g. computer controlled machines, CAD programs run on low cost PCs, etc.
-- About 99% of parts of XCOR's systems are either made in house or bought from a catalog. Don't have to shut down to wait to replace a broken part.
- Customer marketing:
-- start with a plan: E.g. cost-plus vs fixed price, IP, 15 degrees from mean
-- Partner with primes
-- Long lead sales
-- Earned media provides biggest bang
- Partnership with ATK on methane engine has been successful for them.
- Primary funded by angel investors
-- need introductions
-- can't cold call, need a contact
-- don't assume they know much about any tech outside of what they have direct experience in
- Institutional investors
-- No venture firms so far

Q&A:
- Zero-G : down to about 1 in 100 get sick. Keep number of parabolas around 15. Experience from NASA is that sickness comes after about 25 parabolas.
- SpaceLoft : classed under amateur rocket rules. Reduces insurance cost.