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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!rcj
From: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Support for Shuttle
Message-ID: <1010@burl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Feb-86 12:25:02 EST
Article-I.D.: burl.1010
Posted: Sat Feb  8 12:25:02 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Feb-86 08:19:10 EST
References: <394@tekigm2.UUCP> <3276@teklabs.UUCP> <6345@utzoo.UUCP> <784@milano.UUCP> <1961@peora.UUCP>
Reply-To: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Burlington NC
Lines: 39
Summary: 

In article <1961@peora.UUCP> jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) writes:
>> Last night I saw Mr.  Rockwell (the guy who founded the firm of the same
>> name, but who now has a new aerospace company) at a news conference offer
>> to build a new shuttle [which would] then be "leased" to NASA, on a
>> lease-to-buy scheme. (IE Rockwell's company makes back its bucks, NASA
>> gets to keep the orbiter in the end.)
>>
>> Note, these are my recollections of a 60-second blurb on CNN, and might not
>> be completely correct.
>
>That was General Space Corp., a subsidiary of Astrotech International
>Corp; the price of the new shuttle was $1.2 billion, though they didn't
>specify what the fee for leasing it would be.  Bill Nelson (a local
>congressman down here; he flew on the shuttle recently) is lobbying for a
>$1.5 billion emergency appropriation from Congress, and Astrotech in turn
>is lobbying Bill Nelson.  According to the Orlando Sentinel, it's the
>second time they've made that offer (the first time was in 1984, but then
>they wanted to own it themselves and operate it privately, which NASA
>rejected).
>
>According to the Sentinel, Rockwell commented, "The private sector is
>going to take over the entire space transportation system some day.  We
>want to get our ducks in a row and be at the head of the line."
>
I read a _USA_Today_ article on this, and it said (from memory) that
Rockwell Jr. was the chairman of Astrotech, that he planned to "loan"
$1.5 billion to NASA by getting a $.5 billion loan from a major insurance
firm and raising the other $1 billion through a public stock offering
of the General Space Corp. (Astrotech subsidiary) stock.  He is indeed
shooting for owner/operatorship of the entire shuttle line eventually.
The shuttle resulting from these funds would be leased to NASA indefinitely
until the demise of the shuttle program or private sector ownership.
An unidentified source within NASA said that they were "just flabbergasted"
by the offer.
-- 

The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291)
alias: Curtis Jackson	...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj
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