The team comprises two companies with histories dating back to the start of the entrepreneurial space movement in the early 1990s.

"When studying Kistler closer, I realized that (George) Mueller and his team has over the last 12 years actually been pushing the envelope so that NASA can exit their shuttle program by having the K-1 replace some of their key requirements," said George French, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Rocketplane.

The K-1 rocket is Kistler's primary launch vehicle. It is intended to be fully reusable and capable of delivering commercial, civil and military payloads to low- and medium-Earth orbit, and geostationary orbit, as well as to and from the International Space Station.

"Kistler has employed substantial amounts of private risk capital that puts the K-1 $600 million ahead of the next competitor for the ISS re-supply, and the result of those efforts position Rocketplane/Kistler for an ISS flight as early as 2008," French added.

Though the two companies have utilized different vehicle architectures, they share many common core technologies, including thermal protection systems, liquid oxygen-kerosene rocket propulsion and integrated vehicle management systems.

David Urie, Rocketplane's executive vice president, is best known for his role in Lockheed Martin's famed Skunk Works, which developed, among other projects, the SR-71 Blackbird supersonic reconnaissance aircraft. In all, he has developed more than three dozen aircraft and other aerospace products.

From 1963 to 1969, Mueller headed NASA's manned space program and led the Apollo moon landing and Skylab projects. He also is known as the "Father of the Space Shuttle."

French also founded Space Explorers Inc, a space education company in Wisconsin, where he also owns and operates several other businesses.

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