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AeroTech and RCS plays role in winning X Prize |
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2004 Archived News by RCS Rocket Motor Components
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Friday, October 08, 2004 |
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CEDAR CITY, Utah USA — RCS Rocket Motor Components (RCS) Inc. and its AeroTech Consumer Aerospace Division are proud to announce that they played a role in the success of each of the recent flights of SpaceShipOne and the winning of the $10 million Ansari X Prize by Scaled Composites of Mojave, CA, the designer and builder of SpaceShipOne.
Since 2000, AeroTech and RCS have provided solid propellant and phenolic nozzles to SpaceDev of Poway, CA, the hybrid rocket motor contractor to Scaled Composites. SpaceDev used AeroTech's Blue Thunder propellant and RCS phenolic nozzles in the construction of the igniters used to initiate SpaceShipOne's hybrid rocket motor during each flight.
According to Michael Veno, engineering analyst for SpaceDev, "The selection of AeroTech and RCS products was important to SpaceDev's winning the propulsion contract for Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne over the Environmental Aerosciences (EAC) competing design. During development, AeroTech and RCS products became the obvious choice for use in SpaceShipOne's ignition system based on past experience on smaller hybrid rocket motors designed for changing the orbits of small spacecraft. The SpaceDev rocket motor demonstrated more reliable starting characteristics than the EAC motor, which used a gaseous oxygen ignition scheme."
RCS and its AeroTech division join with SpaceDev in congratulating Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites team in the successful development and historic flights of SpaceShipOne, and their winning of the Ansari X Prize. |
