Lucas Wilson, owner of Lucas GP has announced that for 2 years he has been developing his new space company, Wilson Space Developments. The company has been setup in Titusville, just a short drive from the Kennedy Space Centre. Wilson stated in a interview that he was looking to cash in on the boom for budget space flight being pioneered by companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX.
The company revealed their first ever rocket, the VortexWSD-22, at their factory today (see below image) becoming only the 2nd private aerospace company to produce their own rockets. The rocket's first stage is powered by 2 Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68 engines, boosted by 8 small SRB's produced by ATK Launch Systems (Thiokol). With the second stage being powered by a Aerojet AJ10-118Km engine which can put the rocket into low earth orbit. On the 22 May this year, the rocket is set to launch from the Kennedy Space Centre's Launch Pad LC-37A carrying the test capsule named 'Destiny' into orbit. Wilson noted his main ambitions for the company "Well we are going to start small, this first year we are going to focus on developing the system, then launching a few satellites. Then next year, hopefully, we can get it human-rated and be the first private company in history to put a human into orbit".
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