Rocket developer chose Vegas after worldwide search

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000 | 9:47 a.m.

For Al Hastings, the rocket company that bears his name is the convergence of several employment experiences that began as a dream he had since he was 18 that he would one day operate a space technology company.

The president of Hastings' Chariots expects the company to make money hauling microgravity experiments to the edge of Earth's atmosphere and back, but the stakes and the profit potential are much higher if Hastings reaches the back pages of his business plan.

After a stint with the Navy in which he tested and repaired equipment for big-gun ammunition, the California State University-Sacramento graduate went to work in 1988 for Motorola developing computer microchips like many of his Silicon Valley friends.

Wanting to run his own business, Hastings decided to open Wah-III Technology, a company that developed innovative computer displays. It not only turned out to be good experience, but also profitable -- he eventually sold the company to a Kodak subsidiary and would turn the profits into an investment in his dream company.

But before he did that, Hastings was brought on as a "hired gun" to manage the growth of company called Animatics.com.

As chief executive officer of Animatics.com, he directed a business that at one time was the 29th fastest growing private company in Silicon Valley and No. 212 on Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing companies. Animatics sold robot brains and Hastings set up a European distributorship in Milan, Italy.

The experience with Animatics gave him a background in robotics, helpful because of the automation required to conduct the experiments on his rockets.

Hastings embarked on a worldwide search for the ideal location to establish the company that ultimately ended in Las Vegas. Hastings said he knew he wanted to be in a city with a university and he considered setting up in Silicon Valley to be near Stanford and the University of California.

He had numerous friends and contacts in Sacramento, but he found the Nevada business climate to be more attractive than California's.

Hastings also investigated Huntsville, Ala., and Houston, renowned for their aerospace industries, and he even traveled to Scotland, Peru and Ecuador in search of ideal launch sites.

Because Las Vegas has UNLV and Nevada has no state income tax, Hastings decided on the Silver State. He said of California, "they squeeze you just enough to keep you from leaving," but he moved to Las Vegas anyway, knowing that Silicon Valley is only an hour-and-15-minute plane ride away if he needed to tap Northern California's brain power.

He didn't need to.

Hastings opened in July 1998 and hired seven science-savvy Las Vegans to develop his reusable, low-cost rockets. He hooked up with William Culbreth at UNLV's Department of Mechanical Engineering to begin planning to service the research community and with $1 million of his own money he directed the construction of his rockets in a shop that may best be described as an oversized garage.

Meanwhile, he drafted a business plan and today has begun seeking investors.

While Hastings won't talk specifically about launch schedules and his rocket turnaround expenses, he said he would negotiate costs with researchers. The reason: He hopes Hastings' Chariots can get a piece of the patents on products that are developed in tests that occur in the microgravity environment the rockets provide for the researchers.

In addition to having a dream to be the head of a space technology company, Hastings wants to contribute to the development of products of the 21st century. Hastings believes hundreds of patents will be sought in the wake of the experiments that will be conducted aboard his rockets.

Microgravity research occurs in five scientific disciplines: biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, fundamental physics and materials science.

Microgravity, Hastings said, provides a unique environment in which to work.

"You can control temperature by heating or cooling materials," Hastings said. "You can control pressure on substances. But there aren't too many places where you can remove gravity from an environment to test its effect on a material. We can."

Without gravity, crystals can be grown larger or stronger. Large, uniform crystals yield better structural information when analyzed in X-rays, which can lead to better understanding of how the structure of a protein is related to its function in the human body, a NASA brochure on microgravity says.

A greater understanding of combustion will help scientists deal with pollutants, atmospheric change and global warming, unwanted fires and explosions and the incineration of hazardous wastes.

Fluid physicists use microgravity to better understand how liquids, gases and some solids react with solid boundaries. Understanding soils under stress can help engineers design safer buildings in earthquake-prone areas.

Scientists who study fundamental physics can eliminate the external stimulus of gravity affecting the motions of atoms.

In materials science, microgravity can help researchers understand the processes used to produce certain materials on Earth. Manufacturers may be able to develop better metals, alloys, composites, glasses, ceramics and polymers.

The bottom line: A microgravity environment can help scientists develop better electronic components, medicines and materials at the microscopic level. A percentage of a patent could pay off handsomely for Hastings' Chariots as well as put Al Hastings on the front line of product development.