Rocketplane Global Inc.

Rocketplane Global Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated aerospace company designing reusable spaceplanes for passenger flights above 100 km and satellite launch services. Its lineage traces back to Pioneer Rocketplane, founded in 2001, which evolved through Rocketplane Limited and Rocketplane Kistler before the current entity was reincorporated in 2017. Rocketplane Kistler won a NASA COTS contract to supply the International Space Station, but when NASA canceled it, the company went bankrupt in 2010. John Burgener and George French bought it out of bankruptcy, separated the Kistler assets, and refocused Rocketplane Global on spaceplane design. The engineering team is led by original designers Mitchell Burnside Clapp and Dan Raymer, with satellite launch vehicle designs as the primary focus since 2017 and crewed suborbital flight as a longer-term goal.