10 Facts About Rotary Rocket

Rotary Rocket Company was an aerospace company in the late 1990s.

In 1996, Rotary Rocket Company was formed to address this emerging market.

Rotary Rocket took the somewhat radical approach of pricing its services based on the market, rather than based on its costs.

Unlike most of the industry, which had grown out of the defense industry and thus operated in secret, Rotary Rocket Company was open and even invited public scrutiny - going so far as to allow a writer to "live with" the team, sitting in on meetings and interviewing members of staff at their discretion.

Research at Rotary Rocket found that once the vehicle left the atmosphere additional thrust would be necessary.

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Rotary Rocket designed and pressure-tested an exceptionally lightweight but strong composite LOX tank.

In June 1999, Rotary Rocket announced that it would use a derivative of the Fastrac engine under development at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, instead of the company's own unconventional spinning engine design.

Rotary Rocket ceased engine development in 2000, reportedly two weeks before a full-scale test was due, and the company closed in 2001.

Rotary Rocket hangars are now occupied by the National Test Pilot School.

Novel business model Rotary Rocket pioneered, and its emphasis on civilian space endeavors, has since been replicated by virtually every company in the space industry, around the world.