When most people think rockets, they think of the kind that catapult shuttles and satellites into their 17,500-mph orbits. The immediate target market is not the heavy-lift launch industry, which takes telecommunications satellites and other expensive hardware into orbit. Rather, the aim is to create alternatives for both academic and commercial researchers whose only way into space now is usually aboard NASA-launched sounding rockets. These mini-missiles carry payloads, ranging between 10 and several hundred kilograms, on space trips that last from 5 to 15 minutes. That doesn't sound like much, but such flights give astronomers and other researchers a chance to glance into the cosmos from beyond the foggy window of Earth's atmosphere and afford scientists who need to conduct experiments in a weightless environment some precious moments of microgravity.
CATS contestants say they can improve on both sides of the equation.
You don't ever want to wait for a launch if you have a mission that's ready to go. Randa Milliron of Mojave, California's Interorbital Systems, which plans a prize attempt from a fishing trawler in the Pacific 150 miles west of Vandenberg Air Force Base, said her firm already has customers lined up for its Tachyon sounding rockets. Like J.P. Aerospace, Interorbital sees sounding rockets as just the beginning. Powell envisions his company launching small satellites into orbit within five years. Milliron says her company's goal is to develop vehicles that will carry people first into orbit, then to other planets.