Word: rocketeers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Hannah, 60, a wealthy Houston land developer and space buff, had failed on his first try: a year ago, near the same Matagorda launching pad, SSI's inaugural rocket, built for $1.2 million by a young self-taught engineer, blew up during a test of its liquid-fuel engine. Chastened, Hannah got serious. He hired an experienced California contractor who had built 22 rockets for the Government, got a solid-fuel Minuteman motor from the National Aeronautics and Space Ad ministration (cost: $365,000), and hired Slayton and seven other full-time employees to help...
...nearly all oil-industry friends, have already run through $6 million, and must raise at least another $15 million before their venture can earn a cent. The business plan: putting telecommunications and earth-scanning satellites into orbit, at about $5 million a shot, for companies that want a rocket all to themselves or do not want to wait for cheaper space on NASA'S booked-up space shuttle. Hannah says a dozen energy companies are interested (they might conduct geological surveys from space), and SSI hopes to have commercial satellites orbiting two years from now, and monthly launches from...
...investors are confident that the Federal Aviation Administration will formally approve such launches, since the Government seems willing to surrender its U.S. rocket monopoly. Says a NASA official: "We're happy as hell. We want out of the launch business...
...comparison with NASA, SSI is a relaxed, unpretentious operation. "Mission control" consists of a few mobile homes, and Hannah's wife picks up litter around the compound. Last week's rocket watchers, snacking on shrimp, seemed like typical Texas partygoers. Indeed, said one cheery NASA alumnus, champagne glass in hand...
...acre ranch lent by Oil Mogul Toddie Lee Wynne, 85, one of SSI's main financial angels, who died a few hours before liftoff. With the, countdown under way, a launching-pad engineer wandered out to Conestoga I and, with a felt-tipped pen, scribbled on the rocket, GOD BLESS YOU, TODDIE LEE WYNNE. You can't do that at a Government launch site either...