In the two years since Randy Brinkley began his tenure as the head of Kistler Aerospace, the compa-ny has emerged from bankruptcy, lost its financial backing, found a new majority owner, completed a merger, and finally won a make-or-break NASA competition that may just be the K-1 rocket's best chance yet of getting off the ground. When the former Boeing Satellite Systems president took over Kistler Aerospace in August 2004, the reusable rocket company was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection where it had to endure having a $227 million NASA flight demonstration contract yanked away after a successful protest by archrival Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which objected to the way Kistler had been awarded the deal without a new and open competition.
展开▼
