Porsche joins Billionaire Space Race (video)

Sissi Cao (Observer, 7/28/21); Autocar; Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Porsche 918 Spyder versus McLaren P1 versus Ducati 1199 Superleggera motorcycle drag race

(Autocar) Oct 10, 2014) The Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1 are two of the hottest hypercars on offer at the moment (2014), but how well will they fare in a straightaway against the fastest Ducati on sale? Let's put them up against a 1199 Superleggera to find out.

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One of Europe’s richest families (Porsche) is joining the billionaire space race

The elites' sportscar and the folks' wagon

The "billionaire space race" dominated by the Bezos-Musk-Branson trio now has a new participant: Europe’s Porsche family.

Porsche SE, the holding company that controls Volkswagen, on Wednesday (July 28) announced an investment in German rocket maker Isar Aerospace, a startup vying to challenge

• SpaceX and
• Blue Origin and
• Virgin Galactic’s Virgin Orbit

The original "space" vehicle for cadets (VW)

in the booming business of low-cost satellite launch service [and overpriced space tourist service].

Porsche SE is joined by the venture capital company HV Capital and Swiss bank Lombard Odier to invest $75 million a funding round that values Isar at $550 million.

In exchange, Porsche SE would receive a “a low single-digit percentage stake” in the company.

• Cock rockets? Line of sex toys inspired by Elon, Jeff, and Dick's shuttle rockets

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos' magic space wand

Although a half-a-billion-dollar valuation pales in comparison with the scale of Musk's SpaceX and  Bezos' Blue Origin — SpaceX was most recently valued at $76 billion, and Blue Origin receives $1 billion in fresh capital every year from Bezos — it’s a sizable amount for a company barely three years old with zero track record.

New line of toys (Washingtonian)

Since its inception in 2018, Isar has raised a total of $180 million in venture capital funding from  European investors including Airbus’s VC arm and Bülent Altan, a former satellite mission executive at SpaceX.

Isar plans to launch its first test flight next year with a launch vehicle called “Spectrum.” In May, the company was awarded a contract by Germany’s space agency to launch two government satellites into low Earth orbit.

Blue Origin launch: New Shepard tourist rocket

The Porsche funding “will allow Isar Aerospace to further invest in its launch, testing, and manufacturing infrastructure for its largely automated rocket production and commercial operations,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Unlike SpaceX and the smaller Rocket Lab that specialize in reusable boosters, Isar’s core strategy to reduce launch cost is to automate the rocket production process.

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“We are convinced that cost-effective and flexible access to space will be a key enabler for innovations in traditional industries as well as for new and disruptive technologies and business models,” Deputy Chairman of Porsche SE Lutz Meschke said in a statement.

My capsule for sand, surf, and space (VW)

Porsche SE is controlled by the related Porsche and Piëch families. Porsche’s Founder Ferdinand Porsche is the designer of the original VW Beetle (VW bug).

His grandson, Ferdinand Piëch, became the chairman of Volkswagen in 1993. More

• Jeff Bezos is ready for space — Blue Origin’s flight