bd Systems Continues Its Support to the Rocketplane XP Program

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama, August 2005 – bd Systems, Inc. was awarded a contract by Rocketplane® Limited, Inc., of Oklahoma City, OK to provide flight software and structural analysis support for the development of its commercial XP spaceplane. 

Under the contract, bd Systems will deliver vehicle management computer flight software, including Guidance, Navigation, and Control and redundancy management. In addition, bd Systems will provide structural analysis support to guide the design effort.

The Rocketplane XP vehicle, set to fly in 2007, will take off and land from a conventional runway in Burns Flat, OK, and provide passengers with three to four minutes of weightlessness. The vehicle will reach an altitude of 100 km. Rocketplane will be the first company to operate a commercial spaceplane for profit, and is currently taking reservations for flights at www.rocketplane.com.

The bd Systems team is leveraging its experience and expertise gained over decades of support to both NASA and the DoD to deliver safe and cost-effective engineering solutions for the XP spaceplane working closely with the Rocketplane team.

Rocketplane Limited, Inc. (RLI) was founded in 2001 as an Oklahoma Corporation with a vision to be a driving force in the future of commercial space flight. Rocketplane is striving to make space travel as safe, convenient, and commonplace as air travel. 

Rocketplane is currently accepting deposits for customer rides priced at $192,500 with commercial flights set to coincide with the Oklahoma’s Centennial - 2007. Flights will take place in Burns Flat, Oklahoma and the price includes a four day experience of training and flight readiness. 

bd Systems, Inc. is a world-class provider of technology solutions, with over 24 years of experience supporting the aerospace engineering and information technology needs of a range of government and commercial clients. Headquartered in Torrance, California, bd Systems has a nationwide workforce of more than 325 people, with operations in over 20 locations. For additional information about bd Systems, please visit www.bdsys.com.