The BA-2 is more than double the weight of the BA-1 and will address the entire commercial launch market - including current and planned geostationary satellites. The BA-2 will be able to lift satellites weighing over 5,000 kg to geostationary transfer orbit or GTO. GTO is the orbit to which launch vehicles often deliver satellites when the satellites are ultimately headed to geostationary orbit some 23,000 miles in space. Geostationary satellites are well established and represent the major share of the launch market. The BA-2 will also be highly cost effective in launching multiple low earth orbit satellites such as Teledesic, Globalstar, and Iridium.

The three-stage rocket will launch from Sombrero Island in the Caribbean and offer GEO satellites a significantly more efficient transfer orbit than rockets launching from Cape Canaveral. Sombrero is ten degrees in latitude closer to the equator than the Cape and gives the Beal rockets a built-in advantage.

Beal Aerospace was formed in early 1997 and has a rapidly growing team of 70 highly talented managers, engineers, and technicians. The initial 100,000 square foot factory in Frisco, TX is nearing completion and is currently being outfitted with rocket production tooling. Dozens of engine firings have been completed to-date with four recent tests of a scale model stage-1. The engine firings have been particularly successful with extremely stable combustion, no injector heat damage, and virtually no throat erosion. "We are designing a low cost expendable rocket and finding that our engines could be reused many times - should we decide to recover the spent stages from the ocean," comments Scott McFarlane, head of propulsion development.

The all carbon-fiber and epoxy BA-2 rocket will introduce many firsts including high-tech overwrapped tanks and engines, low-cost and environmentally safe hydrogen peroxide propulsion, and the world's largest rocket engine. The 3 million pound thrust first stage engine will generate twice the thrust of the F-1 engine used on the Saturn-V rocket - but without the combustion instabilities that plagued the development of the F-1. "Hydrogren peroxide is key to the simplicity of our design," says Scott Frazier, Program Manager at Beal Aerospace. "It is safe, environmentally benign, and has fundamentally different combustion properties which bypass previous engine development problems associated with large thrust chambers."

Beal Aerospace is 100 percent privately financed with a commitment of many hundreds of millions of dollars from Mr. Beal. The company is breaking the mold of traditional aerospace companies, which typically develop products using government funds to meet government needs.

Beal Aerospace

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