FORKS — Rubicon 1 may be shattered, but Sunday’s explosive rocket mishap put Space Transport Corp. in the national limelight as an X Prize underdog with a can-do spirit.
The result: A slew of investors have e-mailed the cash-strapped company, saying they are interested in making an investment in the partners’ dream of developing space tourism.
“The national attention has been great. We’ve gotten a flood of e-mail, a lot from potential investors,” Space Transport vice president Eric Meier said Monday after he, company president Phillip Storm and volunteers cleaned up the wreckage and debris of Rubicon 1 on the beach near Queets.
“I’m trying to raise some money, and am responding to people who have expressed interest.”
A news report and photos on Sunday’s ill-fated launch were distributed nationally by The Associated Press, and several networks — CNN and MSNBC among them — aired reports and videotape Sunday night and throughout the day Monday.
“Space people instinctively rise to challenges, and the initial reaction from folks that have seen the news is that they want to join forces in this tough project alongside an STC team that clearly has capability and devotion,” Space Transport’s Web site said Monday.
“Sunday’s event seems to have built a wave of support.”
Building a new Rubicon
After Sunday’s explosion and splashdown of the Rubicon nose cone several hundred yards offshore near the Jefferson-Grays Harbor county line, Storm said it could take a month or longer to build a new Rubicon.
But more than time, the small company based in Forks Industrial Park needs up to $300,000 to send astronauts to the 62.1-mile-high edge of space.
It’s their goal as contenders for the $10 million Ansari X Prize set up by aerospace development supporters to encourage private space-vehicle development.
X Prize rules require that a manned spacecraft be sent up twice in two weeks before the end of the year.
