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Inaugural Launch – March 27, 1999 The payload for the demonstration launch was designed to simulate the mass properties of a 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) commercial spacecraft. DemoSat executed a precisely controlled flight profile and was one of the most highly instrumented test missions ever flown. http://www.sea-launch.com/history.htm

Sea Launch History page

Sea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets. It has assembled and launched thirty-one rockets, with two failures and one partial failure. The sea-based launch system means the rockets can be fired from the optimum position on Earth's surface, considerably increasing payload capacity and reducing launch costs [ 1 ] compared to land-based systems. Sea Launch was established in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway , Russia , Ukraine and the United States , managed by Boeing with participation from the other shareholders. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The first rocket was launched in March 1999. All commercial payloads have been communications satellites intended for geostationary transfer orbit with such customers as EchoStar , DirecTV , XM Satellite Radio , and PanAmSat .

Sea Launch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Launch

Space Services Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Space Services, Inc. of America is a space services company that provides star naming services as well as space memorial services through its subsidiary company, Celestis. [ 1 ] Though today it buys secondary payload space on third-party commercial rockets such as Falcon I , Taurus , and Spaceloft XL , in the 1980s the company conducted test flights of several in-house rockets. In 1982, their Conestoga 1 rocket became the first privately funded rocket to reach space. Their last launch attempt, a Conestoga 1620 rocket, was launched in 1995, but broke up 46 seconds into its flight. The parent company, EER, subsequently folded and the Conestoga program was cancelled. [ 2 ] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Services_Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketplane_Limited,_Inc.

Rocketplane Limited, Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rocketplane Limited, Inc. is a defunct aerospace design and development company headquartered in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , with facilities in Guthrie, Oklahoma and Burns Flat, Oklahoma . [ edit ] History Rocketplane Limited, Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the state of Oklahoma on 16 July 2001.
Welcome to Armadillo Aerospace! Armadillo Aerospace is a leading developer of reusable rocket powered vehicles. We are focused on VTVL (vertical takeoff, vertical landing) suborbital research and passenger flights, with an eye towards eventual paths to orbit. http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home

Armadillo Aerospace - Home

Armadillo Aerospace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_Aerospace Armadillo Aerospace is an aerospace startup company based in Mesquite, Texas . Its initial goal is to build a manned suborbital spacecraft capable of space tourism , but it has stated long-term ambitions of orbital spaceflight . The company was founded by John Carmack . [ 1 ] On October 24, 2008, Armadillo won $350,000 by succeeding in the Level 1 Lunar Lander Challenge .
Our mission is very simple. We are working towards launching a human being into space. This is a non-profit suborbital space endeavour founded and led by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen, based entirely on sponsors, private donators and part time specialists. Since May 2008 we have been working full time to reach our goal of launching ourselves into space and to show the world that human space flight is possible without major government budgets and administration. http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/

COPENHAGEN SUBORBITALS - OPEN SOURCE AND NON PROFIT SPACE

http://www.space.com/9026-private-danish-rocket-launch-mock-astronaut-tuesday.html

Private Danish Rocket to Launch Mock Astronaut Tuesday | Space.com

A private Danish rocket built by volunteers to launch one person into suborbital space is set to fly its first test flight Tuesday with a dummy pilot riding aboard. If successful, the rocket should carry its payload up almost 19 miles (30 km) into the upper atmosphere. The project could pave the way for Denmark to eventually become the fourth space-faring nation to send humans into space after Russia, the United States and China.
http://www.space.com/11875-homemade-rocket-launch-danish-copenhagen-suborbitals.html A private Danish rocket launched into the sky today (June 3) on its first successful test flight — a trip that didn't reach anywhere near space but did mark a huge step forward for the team's plan to eventually loft people on cheap suborbital spaceflights. The Danish non-profit outfit Copenhagen Suborbitals launched its homemade rocket, called HEAT-1X, at about 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) from a floating platform in the Baltic Sea.

Danish Amateurs Launch Homemade Rocket, Aim for Future Spaceflight | Human Spaceflight & Private Spaceflight | Copenhagen Suborbitals & Space Tourism | Space.com

Starchaser Industries Ltd

http://starchaser.co.uk/ Starchaser Industries is a privately held, high technology group of companies that specialises in the development, operation and commercialisation of space related products and services. Starchaser Industries enables new space related business opportunities by providing safe, reliable, affordable and reusable access to space for both the space tourism and micro-satellite launch markets. Starchaser Industries UK has been one of, possibly the only, European space tourism related company to achieve significant private venture investment and significant commercial sponsorship which has

Starchaser Industries - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Starchaser Industries is a privately owned company based in the UK whose principle aim is to become a viable business in space tourism . Formed in 1992, the company has designed and built several rocket systems - all prototypes - to investigate the feasibility of producing a Space Tourism Vehicle. Starchaser's rocket NOVA 1, launched in 2001 from Morecambe Bay, still holds the UK record for the biggest successful rocket launch ever fired from the British mainland. [ 1 ] Since 2002, Starchaser have operated an Educational Outreach Programme that has grown steadily to become a now major aspect of the company. This arm of the company aims to take traditionally difficult and abstract areas of Physics and Chemistry and explain their use in rocket building. [ edit ] History It began in 1992, when Steve Bennett, of Dukinfield , was a toothpaste and soap powder laboratory technician at Colgate who sponsored the project initially.

AirLaunch LLC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AirLaunch was an aerospace design and development company headquartered in Kirkland , Washington . [ when? ] They had hoped to provide launch services for launching payloads into orbits around the Earth . This was to be realized through a method called air launch where a rocket is carried to high altitude by an aircraft and then released for launch. The rocket engine is then ignited to launch the rocket (with its payload) into a low-Earth orbit (LEO). [ Full citation needed ] The principal advantage of a rocket being launched by a high flying airplane is that it need not fly through the low, dense atmosphere, the drag of which requires a considerable amount of extra work and thus mass of propellant.

Starfighters Ready to Launch Research, Satellites | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

F-104 jet fighters just like the ones astronauts trained in for decades will become a more regular part of the skyscape above NASA's Kennedy Space Center as a private company expands its fleet of jets with plans to conduct more research flights, launch very small satellites into space and even take paying passengers into the stratosphere. The developments come four years after the company made its first flight from the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, at Kennedy in April 2007. Starfighters pilot and owner Rick Svetkoff is one of the new generation of entrepreneurs working to open different aspects of the aerospace world to a broader group of developers, researchers and people. "We're breaking the mold," Svetkoff said recently inside the hangar at the SLF the company leased from Space Florida.