Entrepreneur Sends Trinkets On Rocket Ride
UP Aerospace, a privately held rocket company, is betting that your beloved is less likely to say no to a marriage proposal if you blast the engagement ring into outer space before popping the question.
UP Aerospace promises to send your stamps, coins, rings and even your Aunt Gerty’s ashes on an affordable four-minute ride through space and then gently parachute those items to the ground.
“We’ve had a lot of people who’ve wanted to fly engagement rings, photographs of loved ones and business cards,” said the firm’s chief executive, Eric Knight, who manages UP Aerospace from his home office in Farmington. Funded by angel investors, the 2-year-old company went from startup to operational on less than $2 million, Knight said.
Although larger commercial rocket companies, such as Virgin Galactic, plan to take passengers on a $200,000 round trip through space, UP Aerospace’s goals are more modest, and the business offers rocket trips for inanimate objects for as little as $50 for some items.
The company is happy to accommodate ring-bearers, hobbyists and the bereaved, but its primary sales targets are large-scale retailers that are interested in buying cargo space aboard its rockets on the assumption that consumers will pay top dollar for a T-shirt or novelty item that has rocketed through the cosmos.
UP Aerospace plans to launch a dozen rockets or more in 2007.
Photo by Wikipedia.
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