Excalibur Almaz Sez: We Are Not a Scam
An Almaz space station module being transported on the Isle of Man. (Credit: Excalibur Almaz)
IOMToday reports that Excalibur Almaz is denying charges that it fraudulently took funds from an investor to use Soviet-era space hardware for human stations:
“These allegations are baseless and will be vigorously defended. To set the record straight, Excalibur Almaz is not out of business and is vigorously pursuing a profitable commercial space program utilizing proven Russian flight hardware capable of re-use, contrary to recent allegations.”
In a lawsuit, Japanese investor Takafumi Horie accused Excalibur Almaz founders Art Dula and J Buckner Hightower of misleading him in order to obtain a $49 million investment in the company. Horie says the Soviet-era Almaz space station hardware the company purchased were museum pieces that could never be launched into space.
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13 responses to “Excalibur Almaz Sez: We Are Not a Scam”
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Horie has been convicted for fraudulent financial dealings in the past and spend time in prison for it. Excalibur-Almaz is a “target of opportunity” for him.
Interesting, thanks for pointing this out.
I think there will be quite a few people eating hats if Excalibur-Almaz actually gets anything into space.
EA is going to need a serious infusion of cash to get the hardware up to snuff and will have to get a launch license from the British and possibly the United States as well.
That’s my view – I just can’t see them ever having anything like enough money (or capability) to do what they want. It looks like a pure pipe-dream to me.
While I personally don’t think that EA will ever achieve their goal, I really don’t get the first part of your comment… Russian is a language that can be learned like any other language. And as far as I know there are quite a few Russian immigrants all across Europe, probably some of them are even engineers! (Not to mention countless people from Eastern Europe, where Russian was a mandatory language during the Soviet Union). So understanding old Russian blueprints really can’t be any of their problems…
As this is effectively based on a Salyut space station, and something similar was the initial ISS module, presumably they need to hire staff with experience either on the Salyut or ISS as experience would be more valuable than being able to read manuals.
This is an OPS module, whereas ISS modules were based on the DOS modules. Although both did fly under the ‘Salyut’ designation, they’re greatly differing designs from different manufacturers.
Lots of Vigor in that statement. More than anything else…
I don’t even care if that statement is true or not, it is a GREAT zinger!!!!
If only there were a recent example of why it might not be a good idea to use decades old soviet space hardware…
There’s a V2 in Deutsches Museum in Munich, maybe some wannabe space program company will buy also that piece? They have a replica of Bachem Natter too, with which the first crewed vertical takeoff was made (with deadly outcome). Maybe it can be “refurbished” and used for tourist flights to the Moon? Why use space hardware from the 1970s when one can go all the way back to the 1940s?
Guten Tag Herr “Kapitalist”, in welcher Stadt haben Sie eigentlich Ihren Sitz?