RESUABLE ROCKET TO MAKE ITS HOME AT MOJAVE AIRPORT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Mojave Airport bills itself as a civilian flight test center, but it might soon have another moniker - spaceport.

Rotary Rocket Co., a San Francisco Bay Area company, is planning to assemble and flight test a reusable rocket at the Mojave Airport, hoping to provide a relatively cheap way for companies to put communication satellites into orbit.

``We're in the process of designing a flexible, commercial space vehicle,'' Rotary Rocket spokesman Geoffrey Hughes said.

Mojave-based Scaled Composites - a company formed by famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan - will make the rocket's lightweight composite outer shell and conduct the final assembly. Scaled Composites also is building a 15 percent scale model and a 20 percent scale model of the rocket for aerodynamic and drop tests.

Rotary Rocket is planning to conduct its flight tests in 1999.

The company's rocket, dubbed Roton, would take off vertically like a conventional rocket, fly into low Earth orbit, release its payload, and then return.

On its descent, helicopter-like rotors would deploy from the nose, slowing the craft for its landing.

``We put the vehicle into orbit, open the cargo doors, check out the payload and if it checks out properly we release it,'' Hughes said. ``If it doesn't work properly, we can close the doors and bring it back to the customer.''

Unlike the space shuttle, which sheds its booster rockets, Roton would not discard any parts in flight. The aim is to create a rocket that can be readied for its next mission in one to two days.

``We wash it off, refuel it and fly it again,'' Hughes said.

Flights are targeted to cost $7 million each, meaning the cost of putting a payload into orbit will be about $1,000 a pound compared to $10,000 a pound for space shuttle operations.

Rotary Rocket Co., based in Redwood Shores, anticipates spending $100 million to develop Roton, which will stand about 50 feet tall and will be 18 feet in diameter.

The rocket will weigh about 400,000 pounds when fueled and will be capable of handling a 7,000-pound payload.

The rocket will be able to operate autonomously or by a ground control pilot.

Roton will use an aerospike engine, a propulsion concept that was tested in the 1960s, but never used for a spacecraft. The aerospike engine concept also is being used for the X-33, a $1 billion-plus project by NASA and Lockheed Martin ``Skunk Works'' to develop a spacecraft aimed at dramatically lowering the costs of getting payloads into space.

Rotary Rocket now employs six people at its site at the Mojave Airport. That number will grow, but Hughes did not known how many workers would ultimately be in the high desert.

The company plans to build several Roton rockets, Hughes said. Rather than build just one model of the rocket, the company would tailor rockets to needs of the customers.

``We will sell them like an airplane company sells airplanes,'' Hughes said.

The company estimates there will be more than 2,000 communication satellite launches in the next decade - a potential market of $10 billion.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) The rocket, dubbed Roton, would take off vertically like a conventional rocket.

(2) On its descent, helicopter-like rotors would deploy from the nose of the rocket, slowing the craft for its return to Earth.