Formation 1992 Region served UK Founder Steve Bennett Motto The sky is not the limit | Legal status Private company Chief Executive Steve Bennett Founded 1992 Leader Steve Bennett | |
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Purpose Commercial Space Access/ Space Tourism and Educational Outreach Location Unit 7, Hyde Point, Dunkirk Lane, Hyde, Greater Manchester, SK14 4NL | ||
Starchaser Industries is a privately owned company based in the UK whose principal aim is to become a viable business in space tourism. Formed in 1992, the company has designed and built several rocket systems - all prototypes - to investigate the feasibility of producing a space tourism vehicle. Starchaser's rocket NOVA 1, launched in 2001 from Morecambe Bay, still holds the UK record for the biggest successful rocket launch ever fired from the British mainland. Since 2002, Starchaser have operated an Educational Outreach Programme that has grown steadily to become a now major aspect of the company. This arm of the company aims to take traditionally difficult and abstract areas of physics and chemistry and explain their use in rocket building.
Contents
History
It began in 1992, when Steve Bennett, of Dukinfield, was a laboratory technician at Colgate who sponsored the project initially. By 1998 Steve was teaching at the University of Salford as a professor of Space Physics and had students help out on several of Starchaser's early rockets. The first rockets were powered by sugar; in fact the company was sponsored by Tate & Lyle until March 1996,when it became known as the Starchaser Foundation.
By December 1998, the company changed again and become a private limited company now known as Starchaser Industries. Engines were tested in 1999 at the Altcar Rifle Range in Merseyside. It moved to new premises in Hyde in January 2001. By this stage the company was sponsored by Microsoft and the Discovery Channel and employed twelve people.
On 22 November 2001, Starchaser 4 was launched from Morecambe Bay as a full-scale test of rocket systems. It was never intended to be a full flight into space (above 100 km) as the UK Civil Aviation Authority restricts any rocket testing on the UK mainland to below 10,000 feet. Starchaser 4 flew to a height of approximately 5,538 feet before parachuting back down into the bay. This was at the time the biggest rocket ever fired from the UK mainland. The rocket, originally intended to be reusable, was damaged on landing and only launched one time.
In 2002 work began on NOVA 2, the pregenitor rocket system to Starchaser's Space tourism Vehicle Thunderstar. The aim of this mission was to focus on the capsule and life-supporting systems of the rocket. In 2004 there were successful tests of the NOVA 2 capsule's landing gear to investigate methods of recovery of the capsule by land. On 1 July 2008, the 57-foot Nova 2 was unveiled to the public and did extensive touring around the UK. NOVA 2 still sits unlaunched, however a launch may be likely in the near future.
Manned spaceflight
Starchaser hoped to launch manned missions from the UK, but as this outcome is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Starchaser has bought land at Spaceport America in New Mexico, next to the White Sands Missile Range, where the company owns 20 acres of land with buildings. It is likely any near future space flight rocket tests will have to be carried out here due to the UK CAA flight restrictions and the superior space-faring infrastructure already present in the US.
It had originally hoped to provide manned spaceflight by 2003. In June 2001, the company unveiled the 33 foot Nova manned rocket which if modified, could fly one person into space. Later, by 2005 the plan was for the manned rocket to be called the Thunderstar, launching from New Mexico. By 2006, the un-manned Skybolt rocket was unveiled, as a prototype for the Thunderstar.
Rockets
Below is a list of key rocket tests Starchaser has undertaken as well as their outcome.
Launched Rockets
Unlaunched Rockets
Churchill Series
The first engines developed by Starchaser were liquid propellant engines all named after wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill. All Churchill operate using liquid Oxygen and Kerosene.
Churchill MkI
Starchaser's first attempt at designing a rocket engine, and generated approximately 500 kg of thrust. Used oxygen and kerosene with nitrogen to pressurise the engine.
Churchill MkII
Six times as powerful as its predecessor, the MKII had a maximum thrust of 3000 kg and used the same gas mixture to pressurise the system.
Churchill Mk III
The MkIII massively improves on the MarkII again; this time by a factor of five. Around 15,000 kg of thrust could be achieved from this engine; making it the most powerful engine Starchaser have. The pressurising gas was this time Helium.
Storm
The Storm engine is basically a scaled down Churchill MkIII for use in the Skybolt rocket. Able to produce around 7000 kg of thrust it acts as an operational successor to the Churchill research engines.
Education
The company operate an Educational Outreach Programme for schools and other similar entities in the UK. Using real examples of rockets and scientific principles, the programme aims to excite and inspire pupils to get interested in Science and Engineering. The outreach side of Starchaser contributes extensively to their much-needed funding. From 2005 onwards, due to the amount of money needed to continue research and development on the rockets increasing rapidly, the tour of schools became a more important part of the company.
Legal issues
In 2002 Steven Bennet took legal action against the BBC corporately (and Dr David Whitehouse, the BBC's science correspondent, personally. Such a personal action was not legally necessary) in response to an article written by Whitehouse. Bennet claimed that the article contained a number of errors and false allegations. The BBC defended its article robustly. Just before the trial, scheduled for July 2003 Starchaser withdrew their action and decided not to go to court with their case provided the BBC agreed to pay Starchaser's costs. This meant Starchaser obtained no benefit from the litigation. The BBC was prepared to go to court but in the interests of saving licence fee payer's money agreed but did not issue Starchaser with an apology, and the BBC continues to stand by its article.