The Rocket City Space Pioneers, an Alabama-based team of space professionals, annouced today that they will sell "payload rides to Earth orbit, as well as to the Moon, at approximately half the cost of a dedicated launch."
“The Rocket City Space Pioneers, through our partner Spaceflight Services, are providing low-cost access to space for fixed and deployable cargo and spacecraft,” said Tim Pickens, team leader in a press release. “Through standard flight interfaces and a streamlined integration process, we can take your payload to the Moon at half the cost of traditional services!” Spaceflight Services takes the excess capacity of from launch companies like SpaceX and turns around and sells the available space on the rocket to customers that want their payloads to have access beyond the atmosphere.
"We offering our services to other Google Lunar X PRIZE teams, we're offering to other commercial companies, government entities and even foreign goverments and companies," said Jason Andrews, CEO of Spaceflight Services in a telephone interview. "We've had meetings with customers around the world, who are interested in going on this flight."
If the customer is interested in a lunar mission, the company avoids the need of a heavy launch vehicle and has the payload tugged into low lunar orbit with the company's SHERPA spacecraft. For a few million dolloars, Andrews says, a university or a small country can launch a payload the size of a milk carton into lunar orbit.
Spaceflight Services is a partner with Google Lunar X PRIZE competitor Rocket City Space Pioneers. The compnay leading the Rocket City Space Pioneers is Dynetics, who designs, develops and delivers aerospace solutions from the subcomponent level to the full system.
For more information, go to http://www.spaceflightservices.com/.
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