Starchaser Industries

Starchaser Industries has always been one of the more interesting teams.

Led by the polarizing figure Mr. Steve Bennett, this organization has been around for many years, building small rockets.

He received a lot of bad publicity early on:

British rocket experts are denouncing as suicidal the latest plans of controversial rocket engineer Steve Bennett. If he goes ahead with them, he could well be killed, and the burgeoning British rocketry effort will be permanently stuck on the launch pad, they warn. (BBC, 2001)

But with the recent succesful flight of his Nova rocket, drop tests of his Nova capsule, and successful engine tests, Bennett may be on the path to space success.

And his fundraising style -- selling memberships, tickets on his test rocket, and souvenirs -- seems to be pretty succesful. Other private rocket companies, take note!

There's something odd about that statement by the BBC as it seems you can't spawn a burgeoning industry until somebody gets off the ground to begin with. Somebody has to go out on the limb and take a chance! In any case, I hope those cynical and shortsighted "rocket experts" eat their predictions.

I agree completely. Starchaser has seen both failures...

...and successes...

...but they always keep trying, and I respect that.

There's an interesting discussion about Starchaser's credibility at Slashdot.org. Check it out.

Just checked out Starchaser's website, and they are having another open house August 24 and 25.

Clark Lindsey from Hobbyspace.com points outthe value of this approach:

The Starchaser X PRIZE project recently announced that it will host another of its Open Day events on August 24-25. If they are having another one so soon, similar events earlier in the year must have been successes. I notice that they are now charging an entrance fee, which I don't believe they did before. This seems to me to be a great idea for raising money for other rocket projects as well. Once enough hardware has been developed, particularly a full scale rocket vehicle (even if only a prototype), they should be able to draw a good sized crowd. Combine the hardware with some hands-on displays, such as PCs running space simulations, and include lecture and multimedia presentations, it could be a fun and educational event that benefits everyone.

"Starchaser Discovery achieved a maximum speed of 700 m.p.h. (1,100 kilometers per hour) in just under three seconds."

awesome.