Digital Sprocket

The last time I did the scorecard was in 2007. Surprisingly, not a lot has changed. This was caused by two factors. First, not all of the companies are still pursuing private manned spaceflight. Instead Xcor and Planetspace are becoming engine and other parts suppliers to aerospace businesses. Others, like Transformational Space would like to be prime contractors and project managers rather than really hardware guys.

The second reason is that the milestones I have listed are extremely challenging. A few years ago, I don’t think most of us realized just how challenging they would be. ARCA, for example, has had multiple drop tests and balloon flights with various hardware configurations. They’ve also designed and test fired several engines and fuel combinations. They just haven’t fired a rocket after launching it on a balloon. They are progressing, but it’s painfully slow when viewed from the outside.

One other thing became clear as I read over company websites and profiles filling in the scorecards. Almost every one of these businesses submitted a proposal for NASA’s COTS program. We’ll dig a little deeper into that at a later date.

I’ve highlighted the few changes to the scorecard to make it easier to read.

Aerospace Startup Scorecard 2009