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Armadillo Aerospace Resurrected On Kickstarter By the Team Members
savuporo writes: Team members from John Carmack's defunct suborbital rocket company, Armadillo Aerospace, have re-launched the suborbital rocket project now as Exos Aerospace through a Kickstarter campaign. While original Armadillo efforts stopped just shy of actually getting to space, the team intends to pick up where they left off, rebuild and make it into a sustainable suborbital payload business. Carmack, while not involved, says their core is "arguably the most competent in suborbital alt-space."
There are multiple other small launcher startups springing up again across the globe — Rocket Labs recently unveiled their new engines, Firefly is making progress, and Lin Industrial also announced their rocket recently.
There are multiple other small launcher startups springing up again across the globe — Rocket Labs recently unveiled their new engines, Firefly is making progress, and Lin Industrial also announced their rocket recently.
What's the point in having sub-orbital rocket capability? I'm missing something.
Nope, you aren't missing anything. There are a few niche applications for sub-orbital launches, but not enough to sustain a business, which is why they are looking for spare change on Kickstarter. Getting to space is easy. Staying in space is hard. Randall Monroe explains it in this "What If".
First we had "Company gets Kickstarted, then fails."
Now we have "Company fails, then (attempts to) get Kickstarted."
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Ballistic poop-o-grams. :-P
Other than that, I find myself asking the same question, because I can't think of many applications in which you need to lob something from point a to point b.
I mean, "sub-orbital" is basically punkin' chunkin', isn't it?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
For example, if I donated some money to Exos Aereospace above and they developed a revolutionary rocket that makes the founders billions, why can't the people that donated have a slice of the pie?
SEC regulations. There's a high bar, in terms of regulations and documentation, for selling equity to the general public.
The SEC is actively working on reducing the burden precisely to allow small investments via crowdfunding, but I haven't followed their progress.
The maximum donation is just $10k? They should have a $100k plus "I get to go into orbit" tier.
In fact if they were smart they would be talking about developing a really nice sub-orbital vehicle expressly for the purpose of tourism - huge viewing ports (with the new transparent aluminum of course!), dedicated to people really being able to see the globe.
Otherwise why should I think these guys can compete against SpaceX?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley