Phantom Space Corp.

[Grey Havoc]

A Rocket Veteran Plots a Cheaper Path Back to Space

(Bloomberg via MSN)

Phantom Space Corp., founded by Jim Cantrell, one of SpaceX’s first employees and previously an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, aims to build and launch hundreds of rockets to lift into orbit an expected flood of smaller satellites in need of quick and cheap access to space.


At $4 million per launch, Phantom says its transport will cost anywhere from $500,000 to $6 million less than what larger payload delivery spacecraft now charge for small satellites.

Phantom plans to buy and license existing components as much as possible, a radical departure from existing space launch production in which companies such as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Rocket Lab USA Inc. and Virgin Orbit LLC custom produce nearly all their parts in-house. In Cantrell’s view, most rockets remain too bespoke in their largely handcrafted assembly and, thus, unnecessarily expensive.

“We want to be the Henry Ford of the rocket business and do what he did with the auto business,” Cantrell, 55, said in a Zoom conversation with Bloomberg News to discuss the company and its first rocket, Daytona-E.

Phantom Space planned to announce Wednesday it has raised $5 million in seed funding to further work on its initial rocket. Phantom will begin a new $35 million round later this month, followed by a $100 million round next year, Cantrell said. It also has gained Air Force permission to lease a launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and is also working to obtain the right to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 

[TomcatViP]

I don't understand. If his single motto is to mass produce existing components, what would prevent existing manufacturer to mass produce themselves?!!

It's just like if an ex-Tesla employee would launch a startup for the automotive market claiming they will Giga-produce cars made out of Tesla components...
That works only with niches: hand made cars for special market.