A few words are in order regarding Mr. Bennett and Koopman. In 1985, Mr. Bennett co-founded American Rocket Company, and as Vice President, External Affairs of AMROC, Mr. Bennett gained one of the first launch permits issued by the Department of Transportation. From 1989 to 1990, Mr. Bennett served as President of AMROC, and from 1985 to 1988 he served on its board of directors.

George Koopman was recommended To Bennett as CEO of the newly founded American Rocket Company. Koopman had a long history of supporting space efforts and was active in the L5 Society. Mr. Koopman's career included being an intelligence analyst in the Vietnam War, a maker of military training films for the Government and the coordinator of spectacular stunts in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers. Mr. Koopman was instrumental in that movie in working with the FAA to obtain permission to drop a Ford Pinto 1500 feet from a helicopter into a plazain Chicago bordered on one side by high voltage power lines and by skysc*such language*rs on the other sides. And interesting side note is that Mr. Koopman also dated Carrie Fisher for a time.

With the passing of George Koopman, who was the primary passion and vision behind Amroc, James Bennett took over as President and the company pressed on toward the launch of SET-1, renamed the Koopman Express in memory of George. The launch date slipped into October as preparations continued. Finally, all was ready the morning of October 5, 1989, coincidentally the 107th bithday of another rocket pioneer, Dr. Robert Goddard. T-0 was set for daybreak.

The night before was, typically of southern California, extremely humid. Fueling preparations, actually oxidizer loading, proceeded. Unbeknownst to the launch crew, the cold LOX caused water vapor from the air to condense on the plumbing and valves inside the rocket. The team from Space Services, Incorporated, led by maverick Gary Hudson, discovered this same problem in August 1981 during a test of their liquid-fueled Percheron, with similar results. At ignition, and oxidizer flow valve froze only partly open. With the reduced LOX flow, the vehicle didn't achieve enough thrust to liftoff and, essentially, sat on the pad in idle. The heat started a hydrogen peroxide fire (H2O2 was used in the rocket as well) and, while this initially only caused minor damage, the crew was unable to contain the fire. The rocket sat smoldering on the pad. Eventually, heat from the fire weakened the launch vehicle supports and SET-1 toppled over onto the launch deck. There was no explosion, which demonstrated the high safety level of hybrid rockets even when there's a problem. The p,yloads were only slightly damaged. The total damage to the pad complex was only about $2,000.

Following this failure, American Rocket tried to regroup. The loss of investor confidence made the task extremely difficult. The company re-organized and redesigned the launch vehicle, christening it Aquila. Development progressed, albeit slowly, and an initial flight of Aquila was hoped for in 1995. Unfortunately, several factors worked against Amros. First the absence of George Koopman, the failure of SET-1 and competition from other companies didn't inspire confidence in the chances of success for Amroc. The failure of numbers of other startups launch companies didn't help Amroc's case either. The fact that no startup company other than Orbital Sciences Corp. had succeeded created a barrier to obtaining additional financing. Perhaps less noticeable was the effect the internet boom had on the venture capital and technology funding markets. In 1994-95, the world-wide web became known , and the birth of the dotcom boom diverted a lot of financing away from other technology areas. Investors were less willing to risk backing a startup space launch services company than they were to back a sure thing like an internet company. With options vanishing, American Rocket Company declared bankruptcy.

Next Installment: After The Fall