LOS ANGELES (AP) – One is a
secretive aviation legend who made history by designing the first private
manned rocket to reach space. The other is a publicity-savvy entrepreneur
shooting to take his famous brand literally out of this world.
American engineer Burt Rutan and British tycoon Sir Richard Branson may seem like
they come from different planets. Yet the improbable duo are
in the same orbit – forming the Spaceship Co. in 2005 to launch ordinary people
into space without government help.
"You have a billionaire
funding a rebel inventor. Putting those two together makes perfect sense,''
said space enthusiast Peter
Diamandis, founder of the nonprofit X Prize
Foundation, who has known both men for nearly a decade.
Aviation
history has other odd couples: The wealthy Harry Guggenheim financed the early
rocket work of the loner Robert Goddard; international arms dealer Charles
Flint helped the Wright brothers sell their airplanes outside the United States;
telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell enlisted Glenn Curtiss, a brash
motorcycle manufacturer, to help build a practical plane.
Now it's Branson, the
adventuring chairman of the multibillion-dollar Virgin Group of companies, who
is investing at least $200 million for a fleet of suborbital passenger
spaceships being designed by Rutan. Rutan heads the obliquely named Scaled Composites LLC, the
kind of techie operation where a new milling machine is announced on its Web site
with an exclamation point.
Rutan's latest effort is based on his SpaceShipOne prototype, a shuttlecock-shaped, hybrid
rocket motor-powered craft that became the first private, piloted vehicle to
reach space. For the achievement, the project collected $10 million from the X
Prize Foundation in 2004.
Since the two teamed up, a
rush of do-it-yourself players have angled to break into the fledgling space tourism market. But the
polar opposite personalities have grabbed the spotlight, partly because of Rutan's track record and Branson's aggressive marketing.
How the new space race
plays out is being closely watched by space and business experts. There are
many unknowns, including long-term business prospects and safety. A single
fatal crash, after all, could hobble the infant industry.
Rutan and Branson have repeatedly said
safety is their main focus. Spaceship Co. is their first venture into space,
though they have known each other since 1990 and collaborated on the
record-breaking Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft.
For most of his life, Rutan, 63, had a single-minded focus on pushing the
envelope of experimental aircraft design. Described by some as a genius, he has
designed some 40 unique aircraft and now has his sights set on space. He has
said he really wants to go to the moon before he dies.
Branson, 56, is a
swashbuckling daredevil flitting between projects. A high school dropout, he
built the Virgin empire into a world brand. The Virgin
logo is slapped in some of the most terrestrial places – music stores, cell
phones, airlines, graphic novels, to name a few. A decade ago, Branson
trademarked Virgin Galactic with the hopes of ultimately flying the brand in
space.
The men differ in their
appearance as well as their social circles. With his 1970s-style muttonchops
and leather jacket, Rutan works among engineers,
technicians and pilots on a wind-swept Mojave Desert
airfield.
Branson – with his golden,
tousled hair and goatee – hobnobs with celebrities, relaxes on his private Necker Island
and makes cameo appearances in Hollywood
movies.
Their differences don't end
there. They have a different philosophy on publicity.
So far, any announcements on when the first customers might experience zero
gravity has been one-sided, with details only trickling from Branson's
Virgin Galactic camp.
Branson recently told a
trade show in California
that construction of the Rutan-designed SpaceShipTwo will be ready within a year, followed by
another year of flight tests. If all goes well, Virgin officials say the
spaceship will be unveiled by early next year with the maiden commercial launch
in 2009.
Rutan, on the other hand, has been
relatively silent. He would only confirm that he is designing SpaceShipTwo and the mothership
aircraft that will launch it. Despite the buzz by Virgin Galactic, Rutan has not publicly released a schedule for completing
work.
Rutan told The Associated Press: "It
is quite some time off.''
Before Rutan
teamed with Branson, he was partners with another billionaire – Microsoft Corp.
co-founder Paul G. Allen – who, like Rutan, tends to
shy away from publicity. Allen invested more than $20 million of his fortune to
fund SpaceShipOne and was tightlipped about his
involvement until a public unveiling in 2003.
Rutan's Mojave Desert
shop is closed to the public. He doesn't give tours because he says it's
time-consuming and fears proprietary information will be leaked. An exception
came last year when a group of Virgin Galactic founders – people who paid
$200,000 to experience five minutes of weightlessness – visited. Even that came
with strings attached: Each had to sign an agreement promising not spill what they
had seen or heard.
Tim Pickens, who was the
chief propulsion engineer for SpaceShipOne, said
employees couldn't even acknowledge the existence of the top-secret program
under Rutan's orders.
"He said, 'Man, we
can't have NASA get a hold of it. There's no way I can let this program get
out,''' recalled Pickens, who now runs his own propulsion company.
Even Branson, who was
funding GlobalFlyer at the time, didn't find out
about SpaceShipOne until 2002 when his deputies
visited Rutan on unrelated business and noticed an
odd-looking spaceship in the hangar.
In speeches since SpaceShipOne's history-making flights, Rutan
has admitted that the Allen-backed project was a year behind schedule. No one
noticed, he said, because no timetable was ever released.
Rutan faces a different challenge this
time around pairing up with the publicity-seeking Branson.
The sleekly designed Virgin
Galactic Web site promises amateur astronauts a spacious cabin to float around
in and large portholes to coo at the curvature of the Earth. Initial flights
will rocket out of the Mojave and later from a still-to-be-built spaceport in New Mexico where voters
earlier this month narrowly approved a tax to support the project.
Absent an actual spaceship
to show off, the company last year unveiled a conceptual mock-up of the
interior featuring reclining seats and spacious windows that excited space bloggers. Branson was center of attention as he strapped
himself in a seat and gave two thumbs up.
Rutan was nowhere to be found.
"We don't go out and
promote Virgin Galactic because that would be improper and unfair to the other spaceline customers,'' said Rutan,
who declined to elaborate. "I have to be careful
to not favor.''
Branson was traveling and
unavailable to comment.
Virgin Galactic President
Will Whitehorn says the two have a mutual respect and
are more alike than most people think.
"I think Burt
understands the commercial needs that we have and we understand his wish to
keep as much of his technological development under wraps as long as
possible,'' Whitehorn said.
Adventurer Steve Fossett says both men have different strengths: Rutan is the visionary while Branson is the salesman.
"Virgin wants to get
into business as soon as possible, but a designer like Scaled needs time to do
it right,'' Fossett said.
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