Len Cormier
Encyclopedia
Len Cormier worked for many years in the U.S. aerospace industry, in government, large industry, and as a private entrepreneur.
He developed many creative proposals for reusable launch vehicles, and was present at several key events of the early Space Age.

Early life and career

Len Cormier was born in 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts.
After learning to fly in the Second World War,
he became a U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 fighter pilot, and executive officer of an ASW patrol squadron.
He obtained a B.A. in physics from Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 in 1952.
"He joined the Navy Reserve
United States Navy Reserve
The United States Navy Reserve, until 2005 known as the United States Naval Reserve, is the Reserve Component of the United States Navy...

 in 1947
and achieved the rank of lieutenant commander in 1958. He retired from
the reserves in 1966.". He spoke Russian and English.

Involvement with the International Geophysical Year

In 1956 he began work at the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

 (NAS) of the U.S.A. As a staff member there in 1957 he was involved in work on a satellite to be launched as part of the International Geophysical Year
International Geophysical Year
The International Geophysical Year was an international scientific project that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West was seriously interrupted...

 (IGY), 1957-1958, and on publication of IGY scientific results.

He attended the October 1957 conference at which the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 hinted at the upcoming launch of Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...

. According to his family, this event "made a tremendous impression on him".

In 1958 he was present at the Jan. 31[?] press conference at the National Academy of Sciences
following the launch of the first US satellite, Explorer 1.
While at the NAS he was also involved with the Moonwatch
Operation Moonwatch
Operation Moonwatch was an amateur science program formally initiated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1956 . The SAO organized Moonwatch as part of the International Geophysical Year which was probably the largest single scientific undertaking in history...

, Moonbeam
Moonbeam
Moonbeam may refer to:* Moonlight, the light that reaches Earth from the Moon* Moonbeam, series of five aeroplanes built by Powel Crosley, Jr.* Moonbeam II, plane flown by aviation pioneer Edwin Moon in 1910...

 and Phototrack volunteer groups supporting the IGY satellite program.

Later work

In 1959, he moved to NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 headquarters, where he was involved with the work of the Space Science Board.

Around 1960 he left NASA to work at North American Aviation
North American Aviation
North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...

, where he was project engineer for
space transportation systems at the Los Angeles Division for several years.

Private entrepreneur

In 1967 Cormier formed a company called TranSpace, marking the beginning of his work on a commercial approach to spaceflight, which continued for the remainder of his life.
Later TranSpace became Third Millennium Aerospace, Inc. Other companies he set up included PanAero, Inc. However Cormier struggled to obtain sufficient investment for his Space Van (and other) concepts, which underwent many revisions over the years.

Concerned with the economics of commercial space transportation with several papers on the topic published by the AIAA. Cormier was a charter member and a reappointed member of the Department of Transportation's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), providing advice to the FAA
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

.

He designed and advocated many reusable launch vehicles (RLVs):
  • Space Van was intended to carry sixteen passengers, plus crew, to a 40-degree low earth orbit
    Low Earth orbit
    A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...

     for $3,000,000 per flight in 1996 dollars.
  • Cormier's Bantam Boosters, Millennium Express. The smaller Bantam Van would carry a 400 kg payload. This reflected his belief a small RLV was essential to obtaining appropriate returns on investment.
  • Bear Cub using a Tupolev Tu-95
    Tupolev Tu-95
    The Tupolev Tu-95 is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the former Soviet Union in 1956 and is expected to serve the Russian Air Force until at least 2040...

     "Bear" bomber as the launch platform for a liquid-fueled rocket.
  • His PanAero company was an Ansari X PRIZE
    Ansari X Prize
    The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks...

     contestant, with their SabreRocket entry based on an existing Sabre-40 jet.
  • PanAero later unsuccessfully proposed Space Van 2010 in response to NASA's COTS
    Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
    Commercial Orbital Transportation Services is a NASA program to coordinate the delivery of crew and cargo to the International Space Station by private companies. The program was announced on January 18, 2006...

     proposals in March 2006.


Cormier was a frequent poster to Usenet's
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...

 sci.space.* and other newsgroups for more than
10 years http://groups.google.com/groups/profile?enc_user=0gZsUhIAAAC_CGLFVt1wt-3rlPwyJFpk8rhlH0Pnl47z4AZhN98BFg.
For his work towards low-cost reusable spaceflight he was nominated for the Heinlein Prize.
Cormier died a well-respected member of the private spaceflight
Private spaceflight
Private spaceflight is flight above Earth altitude conducted by and paid for by an entity other than a government. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology augmented by collaboration with affiliated design...

 community on 2008-06-16, aged 82.

Partial List of Works

  • Cormier, L. Millenium Express, AIAA 2001-3962, 37th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 8–11 July 2001, Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • Cormier, L. X Van Economics, AIAA-98-3954, 34th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, July 13–15, 1998, Cleveland, Ohio.
  • Cormier, L. Bantam Boosters: The Key to Small RLVs?, AIAA-97-3124, 33rd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, July 6–9, 1997, Washington State Convention and Trade Center, Seattle, Washington.
  • Martin J.A. and Cormier L., Where profit drives RLV, AEROSPACE AMERICA , Vol.35, Iss. 4, pp 40–42. April 1997.
  • Cormier, L. The Economics and Technical Benefits of the Assist-Stage Concept for Space Launch, AIAA-96-2773, 32nd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, July 1–3, 1996, Walt Disney World Dolphin, Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
  • Cormier, Leonard N. Simplified satellite prediction from modified orbital elements (Washington, National Academy of Sciences, IGY World Data Center A, Rockets and Satellites, 1959.)
  • Berkner, Lloyd V., Gilman Reid, John Hanessian Jr., Leonard Cormier. Manual on rockets and satellites, vol. 6, Annals of the International Geophysical Year. (Pergamon, 1958.)

Awards and honors

  • Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...

    .
  • Nominated for the Heinlein Prize
    Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization
    The Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization, generally known as the Heinlein Prize, was founded in 1988 to reward individuals who make practical contributions to the commercialization of space...

    .
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