August 10, 2000

Bozeman, Montana -- In a business dominated by aerospace goliaths, a small, relatively unknown rocket builder from Casper, Wyo., has landed a contract to launch a cutting-edge spacecraft prototype for NASA. Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion Company offered the right technology at the right price to NASA officials from Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., who are seeking to rocket test the revolutionary space vehicle, called the SHARP S-1.

Under this contract, which was brokered by TechLink, a NASA contractor in Bozeman, Mont., Wickman Spacecraft will launch a NASA test vehicle for one-tenth of the current commercial price using the company’s novel, low-cost sounding rocket (small rocket).

Wickman Spacecraft was founded in 1981 with its focus to develop new, low-cost spacecraft and rockets. With funding from the U.S. Air Force, it developed a new rocket design that uses an environmentally friendly, low-cost solid propellant. The company pioneered the field of ammonium nitrate solid rocket propellants. They developed the ability to mix and cast without using a vacuum process to produce quality propellants. “Wickman Spacecraft strives to use whenever possible common, low cost materials to build state-of-the-art rocket motors. This cutting-edge fuel technology is now enabling our company to achieve low cost access to space,” said company president, John Wickman.

Wickman’s ability to provide state-of-the-art rocket technology at a fraction of the cost of the industry titans is further supplemented by the pooled efforts of businesses and leadership in the community. Two local Casper companies, Ricor Construction Company and Civil Engineering Professionals are providing their services pro bono to build a launch pad for the upcoming test. The Casper Area Economic Development Alliance has put up money for the project and the city council leased the 5-acre launch site to Wickman for a mere $50 dollars per year. Even emergency personnel and law enforcement for the launch are being provided free of charge by the Casper City-County Fire and Police departments. “By industry standards, we are a tiny company, but add in all the other companies, organizations and individuals involved in helping assure our success, and we become much bigger,” says John Wickman.

Wickman signed the agreement with NASA-Ames on May 23, 2000 and plans to launch by the end of September - an astonishing four-month turn around. “One of our biggest strengths is that because we are small, we are able to be very nimble. If the tests we run on a Tuesday afternoon indicate a new part is needed, I can order the part, have it delivered the next morning and on the rocket for testing the next afternoon. This means more testing in less time and a greater ability to shift directions quickly, based on testing data. All this adds up to substantially lower labor costs and significantly higher productivity,” says Wickman.

Wickman Spacecraft is using its technologies to develop a series of sounding rockets geared toward the commercial market for various research and development applications. Their “A” Series rocket can lift a 10-kilogram payload to an altitude of approximately 265 kilometers. At the other end is the much larger “E” Series rocket, which can lift a 60-kilogram payload to over 1,400 kilometers.

The Wickman rocket technology has the potential to reduce the cost of rocket-based microgravity research by a factor of ten, opening the door to widespread commercial use of space for research and development. Valuable biomedical, pharmaceutical, and materials science research is currently being conducted under microgravity conditions. However, earth-based research facilities provide only a few seconds of microgravity conditions. Wickman’s “E” series rocket would provide nearly 20 minutes of high-quality microgravity conditions. Space-based platforms, such as the smaller-class sounding rockets presently available or the Space Shuttle, are prohibitively expensive for most research.

In the Wyoming experiment, the rocket will reach an altitude of approximately 52 miles from the launch site north of Casper. The purpose of the test, which is expected to take place in late summer or early fall 2000, is to evaluate the fundamental aerodynamics of the new NASA sharp-body vehicle design. The experiment may lead to a series of additional experiments using the Wickman rocket to flight-test sharp-body space vehicles protected with UHTC materials.

NASA-Ames has been developing ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTC) materials to protect the leading edges of space vehicles, which generate an extreme amount of heat during re-entry. These materials may allow space vehicles to be designed with sharp leading edges, which would significantly reduce drag and increase flight efficiency. Traditionally, space vehicles have blunt leading edges. The SHARP S-1 is being designed by the SHARP (Slender Hypervelocity Aerothermodynamic Research Probes) Program at NASA Ames.

TechLink partnered Wickman Spacecraft with NASA-Ames for this project. Located at Montana State University, TechLink contracts with NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense to link their technology development activities with companies in the Northwest.

CONTACTS:
Dr. Will Swearingen
TechLink
(406) 994-7704
wds@montana.edu

Dan Rasky, Senior Scientist
SHARP Program Manager, NASA-Ames
(650) 604-1098, ext. 5244

Paul Kolodziej
SHARP Chief Engineer, NASA-Ames
(650) 604-0356

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