Space Crafter : Ex-Astronaut Set to Launch a Commercial Rocket Service

From the early days of the space program to the defeat last year of McDonnell Douglas Corp.’s bid to build the government a reusable rocket with a radical design, the launch pad has been a focal point of Pete Conrad’s life.

For nearly 40 years, though, someone else was in charge. Whether riding a roaring rocket out of Cape Canaveral or guiding McDonnell Douglas’ experimental Delta Clipper-X rocket through its paces in New Mexico, the astronaut was doing it for someone else.

Now he has his own project--a new company poised to take advantage of what Conrad believes is a forthcoming boom in commercial space ventures.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for years,� he says. “There’s an explosion coming.�

Billing itself as “a space services company,� Conrad’s Universal Space Lines intends to be the world’s first commercial owner-operator of a reusable spaceship. Conrad acknowledges that’s a few years down the road, though.

While Conrad, 66, waits for the industry to catch up with his vision, Universal is signing clients who want the company to develop software to automate the processes of launching and controlling spacecraft and satellites.

Universal is using technology developed in the McDonnell Douglas spacecraft program, where Conrad and an assistant sat in a trailer and flew the prototype Delta Clipper by remote control.

Conrad and Thomas Ingersoll, company co-founder and president, also are negotiating a deal to lease a site for what would be the first commercial ground station for tracking and controlling satellites.

Universal Space Lines exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit needed to take space ventures beyond the big-budget, big-program mentality of government and into the competitive, cost-conscious commercial world, says Ray Williamson, senior research scientist with George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute.

There’s a secondary goal as well, Conrad says. “Doing this work pays us the money� needed to survive until Universal can “sit down with a space vehicle builder and write the specifications for our own vehicle,� he says.

He believes the space industry could rival the air travel industry.

However, space theorist John Pike says that there would have to be demand for “thousands of [space] vehicles before we get to the point where it is feasible to structure the space market like the air transportation market.�

The private space industry--largely devoted to building and launching telecommunications satellites--has been growing at about 10% a year for the last 20 years. But it is still less than a fourth the size of the $40-billion-a-year business of selling space-related goods and services to the government for the space shuttle and other federally financed programs, says Pike, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Space Policy Project in Washington.

Even if demand doesn’t rise as fast as he’d like, Conrad figures Universal Space Lines will survive.

The company, which received start-up financing for its initial $1.1-million operating budget from private investors whom Conrad won’t identify, will still be in the red when the candles are lighted on its first birthday cake April 1.

But Universal Space Lines has new contracts and others nearly signed that should generate $8 million in its second year, Conrad says.

“That’s about eight times what we thought we’d do,� he says.

The former astronaut says he’s had his sights fixed firmly on the skies “from the time I could think.� He studied aeronautical engineering at Princeton University and joined the Navy upon graduating in 1953.

He piloted the Gemini 5 mission in 1965, circling the Earth for a then-record eight days, and followed Neil Armstrong and crew to the moon in 1969 as commander of Apollo 12. Conrad wrapped up his military career in 1973 as commander of Skylab 1, the first U.S. space station.

In 1976, Conrad became a vice president at McDonnell Douglas, joining its Space Systems unit in Huntington Beach in 1990.

For six years, he directed the Delta Clipper-X program, an effort to develop a reusable rocket. Conrad and a small crew that included Ingersoll, his deputy flight manager, scrapped much of what the aerospace industry taught about building and launching spacecraft and approached things from a commercial aviation point of view.

The upshot was a prototype that has relatively few parts that need to be replaced or rebuilt between missions.

In the end, however, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration rejected the Delta Clipper vehicle, opting instead for Lockheed Martin’s more conventional design that launches like a rocket and lands like a glider.

Conrad says he remains convinced that McDonnell Douglas’ unique vertical takeoff and landing vehicle is the best design for a commercial rocket.

And although Uncle Sam is the big spender in space now, NASA and the Defense Department will be the little guys in 20 years, Conrad says.

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New Frontier

Here are some commercial satellite ventures scheduled to begin in the next three years:

* Iridium: Motorola’s $3.4-billion, 66-satellite project is to provide worldwide cellular telephone and other telecommunications services.

* Kelly Space & Technology: Will launch Iridium replacement satellites under a $89-million contract with Motorola.

* Astrolink: Lockheed Martin Corp.’s $4-billion telecommunications satellite network is for business users.

* Galaxy/Spaceway: Hughes Electronics Corp.’s $3-billion-plus network of 15 or more second-generation satellites will replace its HS601, the best-selling satellite in history.

* Teledesic Corp.: Will launch a network of 840 small satellites.

* Globalstar Telecommunications Ltd.: Is a mobile-phone satellite system developed by Loral and Qualcomm Inc.

Source: Times reports