The liquidation auction of all of the assets of Rocketplane Kistler, the bankrupt reusable rocket developer, is scheduled to take place on 11 November 2011, two weeks after the initial deadline of 27 October 2011.
Parties interested in bidding must…
The liquidation auction of all of the assets of Rocketplane Kistler, the bankrupt reusable rocket developer, is scheduled to take place on 11 November 2011, two weeks after the initial deadline of 27 October 2011.
Parties interested in bidding must provide a good faith deposit equal to US$50,000 within forty-eight hours prior to the auction. Following the conclusion of the action, the successful bidder must provide a deposit of at least 25% of the amount of the successful bid within 24 hours. Liquidation auction firm Heritage Global Partners is running the process.
The main assets that are up for sale include Rocketplane’s hardware and tooling for its K-1 rocket, which is currently stored in a number of assembly facilities across the US, as well as all the patents, rights and technologies held by the company. When Rocketplane filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Eastern District of Wisconsin on 15 June 2010, it listed US$108,250 in assets.
Rocketplane rose to prominence in August 2006, when it was selected by NASA alongside SpaceX to develop Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) capable of delivering cargo to the International Space Station. The two private companies would be entitled to US$500m in public funds but this was contingent on their meeting a number of financial and technical milestone requirements.
Despite announcing that Alliant Techsystems would become lead contractor for the K-1 launch vehicle in November 2006, Rocketplane constantly struggled to raise the funding necessary to get its reusable rocket project off the ground. Under the Space Act Agreement, the company was required to secure a total of US$500m in private financing and though it secured a number of extensions to its financial milestone deadlines, NASA eventually notified Rocketplane on 7 September 2007 that its COTS agreement would be terminated.
The loss of that contract effectively sealed Rocketplane’s fate, with private investors unwilling to finance the company now that it had lost its major contract. When it filed for bankruptcy, the company listed secured liabilities of approximately US$3.7m and unsecured liabilities of around US$3.7m.
