Owners of a Forks-based company vying to be the first commercial organization to launch a manned craft into space watched with great interest Monday as a rocket plane flew out of the earth’s atmosphere.
Forks-based Space Transports Corp. is competing against Scaled Composites, which launched the rocket plane, and several other national and international companies for a $10 million prize.
Space Transport president Phillip Storm and vice president Eric Meier exhibited their Rubicon sub-orbital tourism vehicle Sunday and Monday at the Seattle Museum of Flight. They plan to launch it in mid-July with 600 pounds of weight to simulate three passengers. Ultimately, they plan to send up three passengers in the rocket.
Meier was upbeat about the future of commercial spaceflight regardless of his competitor’s big step toward winning the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
“It looked like a tremendous success story. It’s a great day for private space travel,” Meier said Monday night after closing their exhibit.
Storm was towing the spacecraft back to Forks Monday night.
