Sunday, October 21, 2007

NASA Drops RpK

As followed in this blog, Rocketplane Kistler has failed to meet milestones in its agreement with NASA to develop a vehicle capable of ferrying cargo and humans between Earth and the International Space Station. Finally last week, NASA pulled its portion of RpK's funding.

On October 22, NASA will ask for new proposals from companies wanting to pursue the project. The winning proposal will get some or all of the money withdrawn from RpK.

RpK, which has been working closely with NASA in an attempt to save its agreement, is free to submit a proposal in the new competition. Several other companies have expressed interest in the project, however, so its not clear why NASA would turn back to RpK, even though the company has recently come under new management.

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