Military and aerospace powerhouse Northrop Grumman is reported to be on the verge of buying the jewel of the new space crown – SpaceShipOne builder Scaled Composites. With an already well established beachhead of 40 percent it was only a matter of time before the company was fully acquired.
In a report carried by the AP news wire service and Space News, a Northrop Grumman company spokesman was quoted as saying that earlier this month the company agreed to increase its stake in the California-based Scaled Composites LLC from 40 percent to 100 percent. "we went from [being] a partial owner to the owner of the company."
At this time Northrop Grumman is not revealing the value of the deal, which remains subject to regulatory approval.
Scaled Composites under the engineering leadership of Burt Rutan built the first privately owned and developed spacecraft – SpaceShipOne – that in 2004 carried a pilot to 100 kilometer – the so called edge of space.
Burt Rutan will remain at Scaled and the management team will stay as is McClain told AP.
Central to Scaled Composites current business plans is its contract with Richard Branson to build and supply operational suborbital spacecraft to carry paying passengers at an estimated $200,000 a seat.
