Rocket Crafters Developing Suborbital Point-to-Point Vehicles
Here’s a closer look at Rocket Crafters, the Utah company that recently announced that it would be moving its operations to Titusville, Florida. This is based upon the company’s website and a PowerPoint presentation about the company’s move to the Sunshine State.
Founded
November 2010
Divisions
- Defense
- Spacecraft
Goals
- To develop and commercialize a family of synergistic and interrelated aerospace products for the commercial space and military rocket and guided missile markets
- To develop the enabling technologies to make it possible to safely and reliably transport passengers and urgent priority cargo on suborbital tracks over intercontinental distances in 1/6th the time of current commercial aviation services
Programs and Products
- Developing dual propulsion – jet and hybrid rocket powered trainers will create the world’s first opportunity for civilian pilots to get stick-n-rudder training in high-performance rocket powered aircraft and suborbital capable space planes
- Much of the space plane design/engineering completed
- Anticipate first flight sometime before the end of 2014
- D-DART™ next-generation hybrid rocket motors for use in rockets, missiles, launch vehicles, and spacecraft
- Propulsion systems are throttle capable, volume producible, affordable, consistent burning, high-performing, cluster-capable
- Establishing the first commercial spaceflight academy using rocket powered and suborbital capable flight training vehicles
- Anticipate 1st class for FAA approved commercial astronaut wings for Pilot and Mission Specialist will begin in 2014.
Titusville Development Plan
Five-Year Workforce Plan
Executive Team
- Paul Larsen, CEO and Chairman
- Ronald Jones, President & Chief Technology Officer [Public LinkedIn Profile]
- Steve Edwards, Exec. Board Member and VP, Government Relations
- Sid Gutierrez, Board Member and Sr. VP, Business Development
- John Roberts, VP, Propellants and Facilities
Partners
- Utah State University (USU), Logan, UT: Supports development of the Company’s rocket propulsion technologies and products.
- NanoSperse, Inc., Dayton, OH. A global leader in nano-material polymer compounding.
- Center for Advanced Materials (CAM), University of Houston, TX. Provides support in on-vehicle power systems (solar photovoltaic, fuel cell) and multifunctional composite materials and polymers.
- University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI), Dayton, OH. Provides supports in composite aeroshell engineering, launch vehicle aerodynamics, polymers research, and materials testing.
- Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies (PADT), Phoenix, AZ. PADT provides RCI professional mechanical engineering and rapid prototyping services.
- Stratasys, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN. Stratasys has been selected as a strategic supplier of robotic fuel grain fabrication technology.
3 responses to “Rocket Crafters Developing Suborbital Point-to-Point Vehicles”
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Stratasys has a case study up about how these guys are 3D printing ABS fuel grains w/proprietary additives (maybe aluminum?) from NanoSperse.
Don’t believe this hype. Rocket Crafters is more of a hoax than a company. Their “patent pending” additive manufacturing claims are a joke. Their claim of association with Utah State is also a sham. My good friend is the professor at USU who heads their hybrid research, and apparently they just finished a slew of legal issues in which Rocket Crafters’ patent claims were rejected. From what he tells me, RC is some kind of shell company that chases incentive deals and never produces hardware. They’re on at least their third state now.
You are both wrong. They are real, they were associated with Utah State. Time will tell and you will see. People use to think landing on the moon was a hoax too. Whos laughing now!