Excalibur Almaz

[docm]

Updated site link: http://excaliburalmaz.com/SP1/index.php

Excalibur Almaz is the outfit redoing the Russian TKS spacecraft and Almaz (Salyut) space stations for private orbital flights. Re-done capsule images below. Also interesting is that they have a partnership with Ad Astra Aerospace: VASIMR.

Excalibur Almaz is based in Douglas, Isle of Man, with offices in Houston and Moscow. The company follows a lightweight and efficient business model, by owning its spacecraft but contracting expert services, including refurbishment, launch, control, and recovery.

Company founders include: CEO and space law expert Art Dula, CFO and space commercialization veteran Buckner Hightower, and Sales & Marketing Vice President Chris Stott. Stott is also CEO of ManSat and on the board of the International Space University. The company's COO is U.S. Air Force General (ret.) Dirk Jameson, who once commanded the Air Force's Vandenberg missile launching base. Chief of spacecraft operations is Leroy Chiao, formerly a NASA astronaut and Commander of the International Space Station.

Advisory Board members include: former Johnson Space Center Director, George Abbey; former Kennedy Space Center Director and former President of Lockheed Martin Space Operations, Jay Honeycutt; former space shuttle astronaut and VASIMR plasma rocket engine inventor, Franklin Chang-Diaz; former European Space Agency astronaut Jean-Loup Chrétien, and former Russian cosmonauts, Vladimir Titov and Yuri Glaskov

 

[EarthlingX]

Impressive group of people gathered around this project.
Do you have any idea what they are planning to use as a launch vehicle ?

 

[docm]

I've read that the EA spacecraft has a mass of ~8 tons and could be launched minus the cargo section using an Atlas V or F9, but the Almaz modules are larger @ 18,500 kg; F9H, Proton (the Russian's originally used the Proton K), Soyuz etc.

BTW: could someone please merge this thread with the previous one titled "excalibur almaz announced...." ? Forgot to search for it before posting this update