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Beal Aerospace

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Beal Aerospace
Company typeAerospace technology, launch vehicles
Founded1997
FounderAndrew Beal
DefunctOctober 23, 2000
HeadquartersFrisco, Texas[1]
Number of employees
200

Beal Aerospace was a launch vehicle development company founded in February 1997 by Andrew Beal, president of Beal Bank in Dallas, Texas. Headquartered in Frisco, Texas,[1] the goal of the company was to build and operate a privately developed heavy lift orbital launch vehicle. It ceased operations on October 23, 2000.

Company history

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After being founded in 1997, employment grew to approximately 200 people at the company's peak in late 1999. A rocket engine test facility was successfully established in McGregor, Texas. There, the company conducted liquid-fueled engine tests, added several buildings, and built a vertical test stand.[2] Ambitious plans were made to establish a launch pad on Sombrero Island in Anguilla, and to mass-produce launch vehicles in the Virgin Islands, but environmentalists were fiercely opposed to these development plans.[3]

On March 4, 2000, Beal Aerospace conducted a successful test firing of the BA-2 rocket engine, the largest since the NASA Apollo program.[4]

Following NASA's announcement that they would fund research and development of competing launch vehicles under the Space Launch Initiative (SLI), Andrew Beal announced on October 23, 2000, that Beal Aerospace would cease operations. Beal cited NASA's commercial practices as the primary reason for closing.[5][6]

Launch vehicles

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Beal Aerospace initially considered a rocket that used kerosene and liquid oxygen, but soon switched to kerosene fuel in combination with high concentration hydrogen peroxide oxidizer. This combination was selected in order to avoid the expense and complexity of cryogenic storage, and to reduce development costs. Kerosene was injected into the hot steam and oxygen exhaust products of catalytically decomposed hydrogen peroxide, resulting in spontaneous ignition. The original BA-1 launch vehicle design was intended to service the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite constellation launch market, but was replaced by the much larger BA-2 design when it was decided to concentrate on the more stable Geostationary satellite launch market as the LEO constellations became financially unsound. All three stages of the BA-2 vehicle were to be pressure-fed using high-pressure helium storage to replace the expense and complexity of turbopumps. All of the BA-2 propellant tanks and primary structures were to be manufactured from lightweight composite materials. The engines were self-cooled with ablative materials.

Subsequent history

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After the dissolution of Beal Aerospace, its McGregor, Texas test site was acquired by SpaceX to become its McGregor test site in late 2002.[7][2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Pappalardo, Joe (March 1, 2001). "Love & Rockets". Dallas Observer. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Developing the Falcon 9: A new rocket in the making". spaceflightnow.com. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
  3. ^ Harris, Byron (March 1999), "More bang, Big Bucks", Air & Space/Smithsonian, 13 (6): 10–11
  4. ^ "Beal Aerospace Fires Largest Liquid Rocket Engine in 30 Years" (Press release). Space Ref. 2000-03-04.
  5. ^ "Beal Aerospace regrets to announce that it is ceasing all business operations effective October 23, 2000" (Press release). Beal Aerospace. 2000-03-23. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  6. ^ Wayne, Leslie (2006-02-05). "A Bold Plan to Go Where Men Have Gone Before". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
  7. ^ Jeff Foust (26 March 2018). "Reviews: Rocket Billionaires and The Space Barons". The Space Review. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
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