Maybe there's hope for my little investment in SpaceDev yet!
SPACEDEV WINS COMMERCIAL CONTRACT FOR SPACE
MISSION FROM UC BERKELEY
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Company Anticipates Receiving $5 Million of the $12 Million Contract
Awarded to UC Berkeley by NASA
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"SpaceDev took our top-level science requirements and designed us
an extraordinarily capable small spacecraft at an affordable price."
Dr. Mark Hurwitz, University of California, Berkeley
POWAY, CA., November 2, 1999 - SpaceDev, Inc. (OTCBB: SPDV),
the world's first commercial space exploration and development
company, today announced that it has been selected by the Space
Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley
(UCB) to design, build, integrate, test and operate a microspacecraft
that will conduct a one-year astronomy mission in low Earth orbit.
"On Track" to Achieve Financial Goals
"This contract will represent a very important and gratifying milestone
in SpaceDev's growth. It is expected to generate a predictable stream
of revenue totaling approximately $5 million over the course of the next
two and a half years and move us toward our goal of achieving
positive earnings," stated SpaceDev Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer Jim Benson.
The company's business model lends itself to achieve substantial
revenue growth and market-share dominance in the rapidly evolving
commercial space industry, estimated to be a $105 billion market and
growing at an estimated rate of 10% per year, according to industry
sources.
While other companies supplying space-exploration systems
historically have focused on larger and more capital-intensive,
government-driven projects, SpaceDev's business model focuses on
commercial microspacecraft solutions, which the company believes to
be a highly under-penetrated and profitable niche. The company
intends to realize revenues from the design, manufacture, launching
and operation of small spacecraft for a wide variety of institutions,
corporations and agencies requiring a cost-effective alternative to
traditionally high-cost space missions.
SpaceDev Achieves Vital Milestones
Commenting on this major SpaceDev achievement, Benson stated, "CHIPSat represents a critical milestone in our corporate development as an integrated supplier of microspacecraft mission solutions. We are excited that Berke
ley's Space Sciences Laboratory has made this vote of confidence in our ability to assist them in this first UNEX project. We are pursuing a number of other microspacecraft opportunities for a variety of potential clients
and anticipate announcing additional contracts in coming months."
Benson further added, "Over the past two years we have initiated a
number of strategic initiatives to position SpaceDev to be one of a
very few companies capable of meeting the growing demand for fast,
effective and sophisticated small-spacecraft mission solutions.
Through the acquisition of Integrated Space Systems
(www.spaceinc.com), Space Innovations Limited (www.sil.com) and
hybrid rocket technology produced by the former American Rocket
Company (AMROC), we have assembled a world-class team able to
create more value for our clients than they can expect from dealing
with separate contractors."
"SpaceDev took our top-level science requirements and designed us
an extraordinarily capable small spacecraft at an affordable price,"
said Dr. Mark Hurwitz at SSL, Principal Investigator for CHIPS and
the overall CHIPSat Mission Manager. "We were very impressed with
SpaceDev's attention to detail and their rapid response to our
questions and concerns. The deep experience of many of their key
engineers gave us confidence that they can deliver what they promise
on schedule and within budget. We look forward to working with
SpaceDev as a fully integrated member of the mission team," he
added.
The Project
CHIPSat is the first mission of NASA's low-cost University-Class
Explorer (UNEX) series to be approved for the implementation phase.
SpaceDev's Space Missions Division plans to begin the CHIPSat
project immediately under a commercial, fixed-price contract with
UCB. Initial integration and testing of the spacecraft's components are
planned at the company's headquarters in Poway, California about a
year later.
The 85-kg microspacecraft will carry one science instrument, the
Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer, or CHIPS. Launch is
expected in early 2002, followed by one year of mission operations.
CHIPS facilitates the observation and diagnosis of the astrophysical
environment in the void outside our solar system and between the
nearby stars in our galaxy.
Dr. Hurwitz's team was recently granted authorization to enter the implementation phase (Phase B) of the project following a successful project review held on August 31 by a team led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
home of the University Class Projects Office. UNEX is one of several series of lower cost space missions in NASA's Explorers Program.
SpaceDev
Established in 1997, SpaceDev (www.spacedev.com) is the world's
first commercial space exploration and development company.
SpaceDev's corporate offices, its wholly owned subsidiary Integrated
Space Systems (ISS, www.spaceinc.com) and the company's Space
Missions Division are located in Poway, CA. The company's other
wholly owned subsidiary, Space Innovations Limited (SIL,
www.sil.com), is located in Newbury, England.
Besides Earth-orbiting missions such as CHIPSat, SpaceDev is
offering lunar orbiters, Mars probe carriers and derivatives of its Near
Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) mission for sale as turn-key
commercial products. Such commercial deep-space missions are a
first for the industry.
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Contact:
SpaceDev Inc., Poway, CA
Jim Benson, 858/375-2020
jim@spacedev.com
www.spacedev.com
or
UCB/SSL
Dr. Mark Hurwitz, 510/642-1579
markh@ssl.berkeley.edu
or
NASA University Class Projects Office
wff.nasa.gov |
