1996 headquarters mojave california key people rod milliron and randa milliron founders products orbital rocket launch commercial orbital transportation services website http www.interorbital.com interorbital systems corporation ios is an american aerospace manufacturer active in mojave california . it was founded in 1996 by roderick and randa milliron who also co founded trans lunar research a non profit organization . they aim to develop simple yet robust technology to be the lowest cost launch provider in the commercial space industry . interorbital systems is currently engaged in building a launch vehicle for the google lunar x prize and for commercial launches . the company was also a competitor in the ansari x prize 1 and america s space prize . 2 contents 1 current products 1.1 launch services 1.2 satellite kits 2 current projects 2.1 google lunar xprize 3 research and development 3.1 common propulsion module 3.2 orbital spaceflight program 3.3 lunar sample return mission 3.4 sounding rockets 3.5 preliminary design concepts 4 milestones 5 see also 6 references 7 external links current products edit launch services edit interorbital systems aims to launch payloads into orbit wholly from the sea using the neptune series of launch vehicles . satellite kits edit cubesat personal satellite kit comes in both a standard 1 kg 2.2 lb and a non standard 1.33 kg 2.93 lb configuration . built of an aluminum framedesigned for simple experiments receiving and transmitting radio signals or for personal use . tubesat personal satellite kit a lower cost alternative to cubesats built wholly of printed circuit boards . both kits are launched into 310 km 192 mi self decaying orbits where they will eventually burn up in the earth s atmosphere . currently they have a large launch manifest for both kinds of launches . 3 current projects edit google lunar xprize edit interorbital systems is currently engaged as a member of and launch provider for team synergy moon in the google lunar xprize competition . 4 the team s lunar rover will be lifted to the moon s surface by a modified 36 module version of the neptune rocket . research and development edit interorbital systems current development focus is on its neptune line of launch vehicles . common propulsion module edit all of interorbital s rocket designs are based on the common propulsion module cpm . the cpm is a small self contained rocket system capable of delivering a 145 kg payload to an altitude of 310 km . multiple cpms are combined through parallel staging to meet varying mission requirements . though they have experimented with cryogenic fuel interorbital currently uses hypergolic white fuming nitric acid and turpentine for oxidizer and fuel . the cpm is designed to maximize simplicity it uses no turbopumps and no ignition system because of the hypergolic propellants . 5 orbital spaceflight program edit the neptune system is interorbital system s flagship line of launch vehicles built from varying configurations of the common propulsion module . 6 there are currently four stable configurations the neptune n3 a three to four stage vehicle assembled from 3 cpms with a maximum payload capacity of 18 kg . the neptune n5 a three to four stage vehicle assembled from 5 cpms with a maximum payload capacity of 30 40 kg . the neptune n7 a four stage vehicle assembled from 7 cpms with a maximum payload capacity of 75 kg . the neptune n36 a four stage vehicle designed assembled from 36 cpms with a maximum capacity of 1 000 kg or a 191 kg to trans lunar injection and 32 kg to the lunar surface . a variant of this configuration will be used to deliver team synergy moon rover to the surface of the moon for the google lunar x prize . lunar sample return mission edit the lunar sample return mission will excavate and return material from the moon s surface using the company s own ripper vehicle . sounding rockets edit interorbital systems has successfully tested a number of rocket engines in the 500 5 000 lbf 2 to 22 kn thrust range and conducted flight tests of its small testbed neutrino . neutrino is a sounding rocket designed for low altitude suborbital flight for the purpose of testing systems of its larger follow on rockets . ios holds an active office of commercial space transportation launch license for tachyon 7 a sounding rocket designed for a 120 mile apogee suborbital flight . preliminary design concepts edit solaris a suborbital rocket design that was initially ios attempt to win the ansari x prize . it did not get off the ground in time and was beaten by scaled composites spaceshipone . 8 sea star saahto stage and a half to orbit the largest design . it could be fitted to carry either cargo or human passengers . to do so a crew module has been designed . this space capsule is to be capable of housing five crew members and a pilot and sits atop the neptune tsaahto during launch . the rocket itself is composed of eight large common propulsion modules and eight small common propulsion modules and can place a 7 000 pound payload into a 250 mile 51 orbit . milestones edit test flight of the single cpm on march 29th 2014 with four payloads on board . the cpm s main engine underwent its first successful static engine firing on october 28 2012 . the all composite chambered engine performed with 7 500lbs of thrust using nitric acid and turpentine . the common propulsion module test vehicle cpm tv performed its first successful test flight on march 29 2014 . 9 the payloads included two cubesats a synergy moon payload and enclosure by red hot chili peppers guitarist john frusciante . 10 the rocket reached an altitude of 10 000 feet and will be reused for the next test flight . all payloads were recovered intact however were not released to orbit . 9 see also edit private spaceflight orbital spaceflight sub orbital spaceflight otrag which used a similar modular rocket design mojave air and space port references edit x prize team summary sheet interorbital systems pdf . x prize foundation . dead link boyle alan october 8 2004 . space racers set sights on orbital frontier after x prize some rivals seek more lucrative payoff . msnbc . launch manifest . interorbital systems . lunar missions 1 . www.interorbital.com . retrieved 2016 06 05 . synergy moon presentation at 2011 glxp summit . youtube . 2011 07 16 . retrieved 2013 08 11 . launch vehicles 1 . www.interorbital.com . retrieved 2016 06 05 . milliron randa 2006 05 28 . advantages of using white fuming nitric acid wfna as an oxidizer in rockets . lunar lander challenged . retrieved 2013 08 11 . space racers set sights on orbital frontier . msnbc . 2004 10 08 . retrieved 2013 08 11 . a b https web.archive.org web 20140407090735 http www.interorbital.com interorbital 03302014 018.htm . archived from the original on april 7 2014 . retrieved may 6 2014 . missing or empty title help not in citation given album launch john frusciante sends new lp into space on rocket . 2014 03 31 . retrieved 2016 06 27 . external links edit interorbital systems official site trans lunar research team synergy moon v t e space tourism companies armadillo aerospace bigelow aerospace blue origin airbus d & s golden spike company mojave aerospace ventures orbital sciences corporation citation needed rocketship tours sierra nevada corporation space adventures the spaceship company virgin galactic xcor aerospace organizations arca association of autonomous astronauts astronaute club europ en commercial spaceflight federation copenhagen suborbitals space frontier foundation space tourism society spacecraft cst 100 spaceshiptwo soyuz dragon new shepard new glenn living in space commercialization of space space colonization space habitat space station suborbital spaceplane space competitions america s space prize ansari x prize google lunar x prize space elevator competitions space tourists dennis tito mark shuttleworth gregory olsen anousheh ansari charles simonyi richard garriott guy lalibert tourism on the moon v t e ansari x prize x prize foundation competitors armadillo aerospace arca space corporation bristol spaceplanes canadian arrow da vinci project interorbital systems mojave aerospace ventures space transport corporation winner mojave aerospace ventures scaled composites burt rutan vulcan inc. paul allen tier one spaceshipone x flight 1 x flight 2 white knight one brian binnie mike melvill peter siebold people amir ansari anousheh ansari peter diamandis related virgin galactic the spaceship company tier 1b white knight two spaceshiptwo x prize cup xcor ez rocket rocket racing league indicates winning team retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title interorbital systems & oldid 737673576 categories mojave air and space portprivate spaceflight companieshidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from june 2016pages with citations lacking titlespages with citations having bare urlsall articles with failed 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