Dana Andrews talking about the company (founded by his son). “Largest unheard-of aerospace company.” Now at seventy people, and growing fast.

Lot of work for a lot of people. Formed in 1999. Got started without investors, by doing small contracts for NASA and the Air Force. Double in size and revenue every year. Between fifteen and twenty million in revenue expected this year. They are hiring.

They have a system for going to the moon and Mars that would cost roughly half of ESAS. NASA’s Orion module that they show the press was actually built by Andrews, by removing their logo and replacing it with the meatball. Mix of old Boeing veterans with young “computer wizards” who are being mentored. Work NASA, commercial, DoD, split equally, with all three expanding. Woman-owned disadvantaged business (his daughter-in-law is CEO, and Korean–woman who raised Kistler’s first major funding).

Share a building with Paul Allen in downtown Seattle. Work well with both big and small companies.

One of the projects is Peregrin, a horizontal takeoff, horizontal landing rapid-response launcher, in which the recent Chinese ASAT test has aroused Pentagon interest. They supported both teams in CEV (firewalled off with different wings). Assisting ATK in Ares 1 first stage. Supporting RpK on COTS, capable of rapid prototyping.

They believe they now have the critical mass of people and resources to go out and design a system that can reduce cost of access to space. They’re just waiting for the right opportunity.

Dana Andrews talking about the company (founded by his son). “Largest unheard-of aerospace company.” Now at seventy people, and growing fast.

Lot of work for a lot of people. Formed in 1999. Got started without investors, by doing small contracts for NASA and the Air Force. Double in size and revenue every year. Between fifteen and twenty million in revenue expected this year. They are hiring.

They have a system for going to the moon and Mars that would cost roughly half of ESAS. NASA’s Orion module that they show the press was actually built by Andrews, by removing their logo and replacing it with the meatball. Mix of old Boeing veterans with young “computer wizards” who are being mentored. Work NASA, commercial, DoD, split equally, with all three expanding. Woman-owned disadvantaged business (his daughter-in-law is CEO, and Korean–woman who raised Kistler’s first major funding).

The first session on Friday morning will be kicked off by Chuck Lauer from RpK, and Dana Andrews of Andrews Aerospace.

[Update]

Chuck is introducing George French, III (son of RpK chairman) to give the talk. Describing how he got interested in space when he went to Space Camp at age 9 with his father, where they both became committed to it. He also realized at that age that he wasn’t going to become an astronaut. Was the only ten-year-old kid with a mockup of the solar system, including every exploratory probe with descriptions. Got into an argument with his science teacher about how the moon wasn’t habitable. He brought in the space binder that he and his dad had been collecting and presented it to the class. George the second started investing in various companies–OSC, Pioneer Rocketplane, Kistler–and the original Space Camp trip eventually led to him becoming CEO of RpK.

RpK only company with two separate reusable concepts–one suborbital and one orbital. On schedule for first suborbital flight in 2009. Same date for orbital system. Finishing CDR on engine injector for suborbital XP by end of March, avionics defined and under design, at PDR level for ECLSS. Moog doing actuators for flight control system. Built six models for wind-tunnel testing. Well along through AST licensing process, just need to do safety review and expected casualty calculation–don’t think that licensing is on the current critical path. Will be able to handle payload modules for microgravity experiments as well as passengers.

Both their launch sites–Burns Flat, OK for XP and Woomera (Down Under) for the orbital K-1–are very flat. Still looking around for spaceport for K-1 in the US. K-1 is meeting COTS milestones, though no details provided in this talk (will provide information later if asked). Structural fab nearly complete.

Will be able to deliver payloads to and from space, unlike most launch systems. Will be able to carry both pressurized and unpressurized cargo.

Here’s news: they’ve signed a letter of intent with Bigelow to carry passengers by 2012. Also have a deal with Microsoft to give away an XP ride as a prize associated with their Vanishing Point game (part of the Vista rollout). Using Abercrombie and Kent to market their services.

Summary–they believe that they will help peoples’ dreams of traveling in space come true.

Charles Lurio asks if they can complete the program if NASA fails to complete funding on COTS. Answer is that they have other funding sources, sufficient to complete K-1, even if NASA reneges. Good news, if true. When asked about the Bigelow deal, don’t want to give any more details, because Bigelow will be making an announcement at the National Space Symposium in early April.

I got here late yesterday, and there was a shortage of space at the bloggers row, so I didn’t bother to live blog anything. But Jeff Foust has a report on perhaps the most interesting talk, by Steve Cook, on something that has little relationship to cheap access to space (and represents in fact the opposite)–Ares 1 and Ares 5. As Jeff notes, there was disputation over costs, and he was (understandably) evasive, though it’s almost certainly true that even NASA doesn’t know (they never really do, the way they keep books). And it’s difficult, and even arbitrary to attempt to allocate fixed and development costs of a program like this that has common elements, so people tend to jigger the numbers to make the case they want to make. Steve deserves kudos for walking into the lion’s den and doing what is, after all, only his job, as best it can be done.

The morning session begins in half an hour or so.