Washington DC, – September 19 – A new cooperative effort has been announced to try and bring the Israel-built Shavitt space launcher to the U.S, the Florida Space Business Roundtable announced Thursday.A $200,000 grant was announced yesterday by Enterprise Florida to the Florida Space Business Roundtable and Coleman Research Corp.
The grant will help to support Coleman's ongoing effort to gain U.S. Air Force approval to site the Shavitt, a small expendable launch vehicle loosely based on the Israeli Jerico ballistic missile, at the Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida.
The Florida Spaceport Authority will use some of the funds to help Coleman gain access to the Cape's launch compexes for analysis, as well as answer technical questions, licensing restrictions and issues, as well as U.S. State Dept. barriers to the project. The Shavitt can lift 900 pounds to low orbit, a launch vehicle in the same payload class as the U.S. Pegasus XL winged rocket.
Coleman and the Israeli Aircraft Industries group have been in negotiations for several months on bringing the all-solid Shavitt to the U.S. If the deal is eventually successful, it would mark the first time a foreign launcher was located on U.S. soil.
