Starstruck Inc was a company founded by James Bennett

James C. Bennett

James Charles Bennett is an American businessman, with a background in technology companies and consultancy, and a writer on technology and international affairs from a conservative point of view....

 that attempted to perform low-cost orbital rocket launches using experimental, sea-launched hybrid rocket

Hybrid rocket

A hybrid rocket is a rocket with a rocket motor which uses propellants in two different states of matter - one solid and the other either gas or liquid. The Hybrid rocket concept can be traced back at least 75 years....

s. While a commercial failure, it is an important part of hybrid rocket history, responsible for restarting commercial development of hybrid rockets. One of its core leadership was former first Apple CEO, Michael Scott.
The company folded after three rockets built and one successfully launched to suborbital space. Several veterans of Starstruck founded the American Rocket Company (AMROC)

American Rocket Company

Founded in 1985 by George Koopman, Bevin McKinney and Jim Bennett, veterans of Starstruck , the American Rocket Company, or AMROC, was a company that developed hybrid rocket motors....

, which also eventually failed. AMROC's intellectual property was acquired by SpaceDev

SpaceDev

SpaceDev, a part of the "Space Systems Business" of Sierra Nevada Corporation, is prominent for its spaceflight and microsatellite work. It designed and built the hybrid rocket motors for Paul Allen's Tier One suborbital SpaceShipOne space program operated by Scaled Composites...

.

Sources

1. Jim Schefter. (May 1984) High-tech Rockets on the Cheap. Popular Science

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