{"id":13590,"date":"2016-12-05T23:50:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T04:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13590"},"modified":"2016-12-07T11:54:05","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T16:54:05","slug":"loretta-jackson-delong-co-founder-of-xcor-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13590","title":{"rendered":"Loretta Jackson Delong, co-founder of XCOR, passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The NewSpace community suffers a big loss:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.transterrestrial.com\/?p=66229\" target=\"_d\">Loretta Jackson Delong (1948-2016) | Rand Simberg\/Transterrestrial Musings<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mrt.com\/news\/local\/article\/XCOR-co-founder-dies-in-Midland-10699683.php?cmpid=fb-desktop\">XCOR co-founder dies in Midland &#8211; Midland Reporter-Telegram<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>[<strong>Update<\/strong>: See also\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mike.massee\/posts\/1418589174818431\" target=\"_d\">Mike Massee &#8211; Yesterday I lost a very good friend and the world&#8230;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.centauri-dreams.org\/?p=36745\" target=\"_d\">Loretta Jackson Delong (1948-2016)0 &#8211; Paul Glister\/Centauri Dreams<\/a>\u00a0 ]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>From Rand&#8217;s posting:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Aleta, as she was known to all, passed away this morning [Dec. 4, 2016] in the Midland hospital ER. Aleta knew from the time she was twelve that she would build and fly spaceships. Her first professional work was as an engineering co op from Indiana Tech working on the Gemini program for McDonnell. Her engineering degree was cut short when she went home to nurse her mother back to health. After that, she joined the USAF as airman Jackson.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Aleta worked for Xerox for ten years as a repair technician and wrote both science fiction and non-fiction stories. She worked for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nss.org\/settlement\/L5news\/L5history.htm\" target=\"_blank\">L-5 Society<\/a>, both in Tucson and later in Washington DC. During her stay in DC, Aleta became an aide to General Daniel Graham and helped create the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X\" target=\"_blank\">DC-X<\/a> launch vehicle, later renamed the Clipper Graham. She also edited the Journal of Practical Applications of Space while with Graham\u2019s Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>As an indefatigable supporter of launch vehicle development, Aleta then became one of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rotary_Rocket\" target=\"_blank\">Rotary Rocket Company<\/a>\u2019s first employees, where she was general office manager. When the propulsion group was laid off from Rotary, Aleta was the person who told Jeff Greason, Dan DeLong, and Doug Jones that they had to stick with it, and founded <a href=\"https:\/\/app.newspaceglobal.com\/observer\/xcor\" target=\"_blank\">XCOR Aerospace<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>In the beginning, because the XCOR founders received no pay, Aleta took an additional job as a reporter\/editor of the Mojave Desert News. Meanwhile, she was XCOR\u2019s purchasing, personnel, bookkeeping, editorial, receiving, community outreach, and travel departments. As the company grew, she shed most of these tasks. In late 2015 she helped Jeff Greason start <a href=\"http:\/\/www.agile.aero\/\" target=\"_blank\">Agile Aero<\/a>. Aleta was a personal as well as professional partner of Dan DeLong since the early days of Rotary, and they were officially married in 2016. The very next day, however, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and succumbed to complications of the chemotherapy regimen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>See the many <a href=\"http:\/\/www.transterrestrial.com\/?p=66229#comments\" target=\"_blank\">tributes in the comments<\/a> there as well.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.transterrestrial.com\/?p=66229#comments\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"13591\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=13591\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Aleta1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2160,1440\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"aleta1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Aleta1-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-13591\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Aleta1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"aleta1\" width=\"520\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Aleta1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Aleta1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Aleta1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Aleta&#8217;s husband Dan Delong <a href=\"http:\/\/www.transterrestrial.com\/?p=66229\" target=\"_blank\">added this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Thanks all for the kind words. In order to allow time for those traveling, and to get around the holidays, the memorial service will be Sunday, Jan 15 at the Christian Church of Midland at 2608 Neely Ave. Thanks again, Dan.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NewSpace community suffers a big loss: Loretta Jackson Delong (1948-2016) | Rand Simberg\/Transterrestrial Musings XCOR co-founder dies in Midland &#8211; Midland Reporter-Telegram\u00a0 [Update: See also Mike Massee &#8211; Yesterday I lost a very good friend and the world&#8230; Loretta Jackson Delong (1948-2016)0 &#8211; Paul Glister\/Centauri Dreams\u00a0 ] From Rand&#8217;s posting: Aleta, as she was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13590\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Loretta Jackson Delong, co-founder of XCOR, passes away<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-diy-space","category-space-industry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3xc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7582,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=7582","url_meta":{"origin":13590,"position":0},"title":"Texas honors Citizen-Astronaut candidates","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A message from Citizens in Space: Texas Honors Citizen-Astronaut Candidates New \"Admirals\" to Play Key Role in Future Texas Space Program (Austin, Texas) Two citizen-astronaut candidates have been honored by the state of Texas. 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