From: earlcp@idirect.com   
      
   "David Summers"  :   
      
      
   > The reason I ask is, of course, the recent papers on the $1,000 per   
   > pound launch minimums.  They state that insurance costs and range   
   > launch fees would set that minimum.  Can you legally avoid the launch   
   > range fees, for example by building a very small rocket and building   
   > your own very small launch range (a la Sea Launch)?  Do the per flight   
   > insurance rates scale with rocket size, launch location (the middle of   
   > the ocean, say), flight rate, or anything else?   
      
   Don't know any details, but I know a number of small lanuch companies have   
   complained about the fees due when using traditional lanuch sites.  It looks   
   like you need to either go water based or like the SS1 go to air launching to   
   get away from old lanuch ranges.   
      
   Insurance is a bummer.  It is like car insurance, had to be legal without it,   
   and other people will not trust you is you can't get any.  But lately it   
   seems more and more insurance companies are forgetting they are a service   
   industry, they seem to only want to insure a sure thing (which rockets are   
   not) or demand a huge margin on the insurance.   
      
   It seems that what you need to be is self-insured, but that requires that you   
   place a large bond in trust ie $100,000,000 -$1,000,000,000 unless your   
   design is very small and you can show how limit damage from an accident would   
   be.  Here I think the few stages the better.   
      
   One advantage of self-insuring.  You don't need to increase the amount of   
   money you have bonded, with the number of craft you have built like you would   
   an insurance company, instead you only have to increase it to cover the   
   number of craft flying at any one time.  Insurance companies do have fleet   
   insurance, but I doubt you would see any big savings there until your fleet   
   number climbs into the doulble digits.   
      
                     Earl Colby Pottinger   
      
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