The difficulty in finding nearly $10 Million for a Falcon 1 launch (not to mention the unimpressive flight history of that vehicle) has caused Micro-Space and its partners to accelerate our plan to pursue an independent launch capability. To top everything else, the Falcon 1 has TOO LARGE a payload capability for our basic GLXP flight, let alone the reduced mass missions which now seem possible. As other GLXP teams are forced to reduce their systems mass to match the meager funding that can be raised, we expect to become a prime launch supplier for them. Our target price is $2 Million to place 400 pounds in LEO orbit. A small addition will deliver an appropriate fraction of that mass to the Moon, and save a team that complexity. As always, Micro-Space offers to sell priority options for such launch services – taking priority even over flights of our own lander – for customers willing to provide early cash flow and prepared to ramp up funding for the operational vehicle when that step becomes appropriate.

This actually ratchets down the Micro-Space funding challenge, for the launch vehicle development – starting with what we have already invested and accomplished – is much less than the nearly $10 Million Falcon 1! Ours is not, of course, a sophisticated “race car” of a vehicle. It relies on the pressure fed “dumb boosters” which served so well on the Delta II upper stage, and started out nicely on the second flight of Falcon I. The second stage in these, and all similar vehicles, does most of the work getting a payload into orbit! A cluster of combustion chambers, possibly equaling the count on the Soyuz, will form our first stage.

It is actually well known that development of an orbital launch vehicle's second stage Costs More than the first stage! As mentioned it does most of the work to accelerate a satellite to orbital velocity. But it must contain the Guidance, Navigation and Control systems. Hobbyists talk about “Making a rocket big enough to reach orbit.”, but without these systems, no rocket will ever achieve orbit! Injection into LEO requires both adequate velocity and an accurate velocity vector. Deviation by a fraction of a degree in this vector will doom the LEO satellite to premature reentry.

The present Micro-Space plan is to “Finish our Second Stage First”. We have all the necessary components and operational subsystems, including navigation and guidance. With integration and demonstration of this stage, the hardest part will be done. The cluster of takeoff boosters mentioned above will prepare this system for orbital flight.

In today's investment environment, it will take a Miracle to find even the $1 Million needed to complete integration and operational demonstration of our modular MicroSat launch vehicle. But we expect to see the Lord's hand – once again – with provision of that Miracle! Beyond the problem of disbelief, the investor's position is simple:

Thirty two CubeSats have been launched into orbit (the most recent batch by India), and 39 more projects have been publicly announced. Most of these have been produced by Universities. When graduates combine this experience with modern microelectronic technology, they will lead corporate, Space Technology efforts. With active antennas, NanoSats and MicroSats will each be able to focus communications on thousands of customers simultaneously, and add multi spectral data as appropriate.

Many of these applications will require dedicated, custom orbit launches, as will these satellites when equipped with propulsion which would otherwise endanger other components of a mixed payload. Deep Space flights, GEO, cislunar and interplanetary, are particularly attractive for micro vehicles, compared to the massive present cost of carrying an experiment above LEO. This field will soon resemble the “Microelectronic” revolution in personal communications, personal and portable computing and endless game systems.

Some few investors will understand this. Many more will eventually add this to their “If only .....” list.