Space Adventures, a Vienna, Va.-based
company created to provide space travel opportunities, agreed to
acquire Space Launch Corp. of Fountain Valley, Calif.
Space Launch Corp.s
CEO Jacob Lopata, will continue in his position after the
acquisition is complete.
Formed in 1999 to
develop and market affordable products and services for the small
satellite launch industry, Space Launch Corp. has worked for the
last five years with the U.S. government on launch systems and
related technologies. Space Launch claims to have successfully
completed $25 million worth of contract work.
By purchasing Space
Launch, Space Adventures said it will gain access to its
technological developments to apply to its space travel
programs.
Space Adventures
stakes its claim as the first company to have launched private
explorers into space, beginning with Dennis Tito in 2001, when Tito
purchased a seat on the Russian orbital spacecraft Soyuz and spent
10 days in space and visited the international space
station.
The company also
sent South African Mark Shuttleworth into space in April 2002, and
Greg Olsen, a New Jersey native, in October 2005. Daisuke Enomoto,
a Japanese resident of Hong Kong, is scheduled to go into orbit
September 2006.
The trips have all
been provided by Space Adventures in partnership with the Russian
Space Agency in Moscow. The private space travelers accompanied
Russian cosmonauts.
To contact
reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].