Well I'll Be Damned: Kistler Got A NASA Contract!

02/03/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

NASA Contract Could Jumpstart Rocket Start Up:

bq.

WASHINGTON – Eager to find new ways to ferry cargo to and from the international space station, NASA plans to pay a U.S. company $227.4 million for the demonstration of a reusable rocket that has been in development since the satellite boom of the 1990s.

NASA announced Feb. 2 that it intends to exercise a 2001 contract with Kirkland, Wash.-based Kistler Aerospace Corp. to buy pre- and post-flight data from demonstrations of the companyÂ’s K-1 reusable launch vehicle. The award, according to NASA, is not for actual launch services to the station, but for the data from a series of flight demonstrations meant to show that a recoverable launcher can reliably approach an orbiting platform such as the space station and safely attach to it.

Hot damn!