Launch Sites as a Service (LSAAS)
Space Startup Spotlight: The Launch Company
For better or for worse, the majority of the Space Industry is focused on launching rockets and satellites into space, and generally overlooks the complexity and expense of the actual launch process. A rocket company needs dozens of systems to work synchronously to get a mission to space, but these are not standardized, meaning that each launchpad is a tailor-made multi-million dollar project.
This is precisely where The Launch Company steps in to help.
Founded in 2018, The Launch Company provides critical launch equipment and infrastructure. Their products and services help to support those clients getting to space in a more efficient, quicker, and safer manner. They develop standardized hardware and services that open up access to the next generation of space entrepreneurs.
Who’s Behind The Launch Company?
Headquartered in Alaska (a state known as “The Last Frontier”), The Launch Company is comprised of Space veterans. Each member of The Launch Company’s team has significant experience working on dozens of launch campaigns.
Ben Kellie, Founder and CEO, is a SpaceX veteran and Alaskan native. With a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and years of experience administering space launch sites, it seemed only natural that he would eventually branch out to begin a project of his own.
Rick Miller is the Lead Hardware Engineer and specializes in the industrial design and manufacture of The Launch Company’s QD (quick disconnect) fittings. Jacob Leguineche, another SpaceX veteran, is the Lead Analysis Engineer and is in charge of engineering analysis and design.
Outside of NewSpace and aerospace, each member of The Launch Company’s team gained vital skills working on a variety of challenging engineering problems. Those skills translate well for The Launch Company’s New Space clients, who wish to get to market quickly and cost-effectively.
Products and Services
In essence, the company focuses on helping clients in the space launch industry manage their launch sites. The company sees itself as capitalizing on the trend for new space enterprises to minimize their infrastructure so that they can respond swiftly to customer needs. The Launch Company, therefore, is a kind of facilities operator, looking for opportunities to make launch facilities more accessible and cost-effective.
They do this by offering their clients a comprehensive set of launch services ranging from early conception trade studies and site sourcing through to design, deployment, and activation. This also includes a line of proprietary standardized quick-disconnects (QD’s) fittings that are available to its clients on-demand.
And, business is good! The Launch Company now helps smaller operators launch rockets at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral, Kodiak Island, and even offshore platforms.
The Vision
Kellie discovered a fundamental problem in the space launch industry early in his career. SpaceX and other firms, he noted, had to foot the bill for their pads, adding tremendously to their overall costs and capital requirements. It is a little bit about airlines having to pay for the airport before operating any flights. “Imagine,” he says, “if every airline had to build its own airport.” The costs would be astronomical!
Kellie says his company is working to put an end to this state of affairs. They are trying to do what has already happened in the airport industry — standardize hardware, parts, and systems so that they’re interchangeable between different sites. The Launch Company is confident that it can achieve this goal and prevent firms from having to design equipment in-house, saving both time and money.
Kellie also likens what he’s doing to developments in the realm of personal electronics. In that industry, manufacturers realized a long time ago that having multiple ports for changers was pointless, and that it made much more sense to all adopt the same USB standard. The Launch Company wants to do the same thing in the space industry, offering small firms that don’t have the massive resources of Blue Origin or SpaceX a competitive advantage.
The Launch Company is a visionary space launch company that wants to reshape the industry. Standardization will be its tool.
You can learn more about The Launch Company at their website and through their social media outlets: Instagram & Twitter
“Space Startup Spotlight” is a new, regularly-scheduled, profile of an up-and-coming space startup from around the world by NewSpace Hub.
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