News is happening quickly at Sprague Astronautics. Here you can find the latest announcements.

SPRAGUE ASTRONAUTICS ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF CHIEF MISSION COMMANDER
David Lessick, an Air Force Reserve Major will Pilot Test Flights, First Flight and Manage Training of Subsequent AeraSpaceTours Mission Commanders

TEMECULA, CA, June 28, 2005 — David Lessick, an Air Force Reserve Major, has been chosen by Sprague Astronautics AeraSpaceTours as the Chief Mission Commander of the Altairis Rocket which will begin taking passengers into space in 2008. In this role he will follow in the footsteps of the other pioneer-astronauts and test pilots who made the dream of space flight possible for a fortunate few. Chief Mission Commander Lessick and Sprague Astronautics will make the awe and wonder of space travel available to many men and women from around the world.

“With safety being of paramount concern to us and to our customers, it was essential that our mission commander have the experience and abilities of Chief Mission Commander Lessick and we are pleased a gentlemen of his caliber would join in our efforts to make space travel accessible for the masses,” Said company founder, president and ceo Bill M. Sprague.

Air Force Reserve Major David Lessick is former Spacecraft Bus Division Chief for the Advanced-EHF Program, MILSATCOM Joint Program Office, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. As such he was responsible for managing the research, design, development and acquisition of the Advanced-EHF satellite systems.

In this position, MILSATCOM selected him as the Senior Company Grade Officer of the spring 2004 Quarter, and Reservist of the Year for 2004. The $5.3 billion multinational Advanced-EHF communication network provides secure C2, survivable through nuclear war, for the President of the United States, SECDEF, and more than 6000 combat troops in every country and ocean on Earth.

Major Lessick was commissioned through Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, in 1991. Prior to his assignment at the MILSATCOM Joint Program Office he served as a C-141C aircraft commander for the 729th Airlift Squadron at March Air Reserve Base, California. In this role, he was responsible for five to 30 crewmembers operating through sophisticated and austere airfields on all seven continents and multiple islands throughout the world. The major spent the majority of his Air Force Reserve career as a pilot in the C-141B/C aircraft. He has served as a copilot, first pilot, and air-refueling aircraft commander.

Major Lessick joined the Air Force Reserves during operation DESERT SHIELD in 1990. Prior to joining the Reserves, he worked for Hughes Aircraft Company as a Systems Engineer for the Space Electro Optical Systems Laboratories and as an Orbital Analyst for Hughes Communications, Inc. He started flying for American Airlines in 2000 as a Flight Engineer on the 727 aircraft, then as a First Officer on the 767, 757, and 737. In 2002, he leveraged three technical degrees and five years of space industry experience to dive into military space, heart first.

“Going into space has been a dream of mine since I was a small-boy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago,” Said Chief Mission Commander Lessick. “I always thought it would be as part of the United States Space Program and it was partly why I joined the Air Force, but doing this as part of a civilian effort is even more exciting because we will fuel the dreams of small boys about going into space all over the world and help to make it a reality.”

“With our design completed and our agreements in place to use Cape Canaveral for launch, flight logistics and landing, with the cooperation of the 45th Space Wing of the United States Air Force, the next logical step was to identify our Mission Commander, now that we have Major Lessick ready for launch we are that much closer to space” Said Bill M. Sprague, chief scientist behind the Altairis Rocket.

ABOUT SPRAGUE ASTRONAUTICS

Sprague Astronautics Company, Inc., is leading the luxury space travel industry with the completed design of the safest space flight system ever created. Altairis, the company's first generation spacecraft, features a superior design based on 30 years of proven technology and was expertly engineered by a staff highly experienced in the development of rockets and spacecraft. Altairis is vertically launched, lands horizontally and can comfortably send seven passengers to space. The first flight is scheduled for 2008. For further information about Sprague Astronautics, visit www.spragueastronautics.com.

The fact that Major Lessick is a major in the Air Force Reserve is in no way to be construed to mean that the United States Air Force is endorsing or supporting Sprague Astronautics or AeraSpaceTours.

Archive

Cooming soon