General astronomy discussion

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

MercForHire — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:22:33 GMT

East_McDuck wrote:
What exactly is Team Encounter?

It WAS one of those deals in the same general realm of buying a star & owning an acre of land on the moon. This one was going to launch a solar sail powered spacecraft on a voyage into interstellar space. Onboard would be various items, such as pictures & strands of hair, from everyone who had paid up to $80 for a "Space Kit".

Needless to say, the project got put on hold several times, & then, apparently, completely folded. It's a mystery as to what happened to the strands of hair, but the money that people paid for this is long gone. Best to just chalk it up as a lesson learned.

The ONLY way that you stand a decent chance of getting something of yours into space, with the current start-up level of these new companies, is to be standing right beside the rocket, 1 minute before lift-off, & scribble your name on the side with a piece of chalk. Anything else & it's just taking a long-shot risk.

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

East_McDuck — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:03:26 GMT

What exactly is Team Encounter?

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

Encounterz — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:51:19 GMT

I agree that we MUST find a lawyer (outside of TX - ahem) that we were taken. I have 4 "reservation numbers" for my Family.

[1] Website is shutdown; [2] "Permanently Postponed"'; Seven YEARS and NO, well, ANYTHING; [3] Time to find a good Law Firm, my friends.

Encounterz

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

Wesearch — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 03:25:11 GMT

I'm not sure you can believe everything about what you hear about Team Encounter. According to the Texas Comptroller's office, the guy behind the curtain was Robert Cary McNair. There is a Robert McNair Senior who is the owner of the Houston Texans. There is also a R Cary McNair Jr. who lives in Austin, Texas. The address listed on the Comtrpoller's Office website is 1300 Red Bud Trail in Austin which would lead me to surmise that Jr. is the one who bought into this schem (scam?). One of the officers is Harvin Moore IV. whose father went to prison in the 1980's for the Savings and Loan Swindle.

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

zohoe — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 02:54:41 GMT

Team Encounter seems to have gone out of business in late 2004 after the primary investors pulled the plug on the whole project. As to what happens to trhe money that was paid for a mission that never flew is anyone's guess. The following was posted on www.hobbyspace.com in November of 2005 in a Space Business blog and contains further info for anyone interested.

>> The previous item reminded me to mention a recent article in Space News (Oct.24) about Charles Chafer and Space Services. Chafer was the driving force behind the space burial firm Celestis, the predecessor to Space Services, and Team Encounter. Team Encounter (Jan 3, 2004 home page at the WaybackMachine) was a solar sail project, which offered the public the opportunity for a fee to send messages and memorabilia on a spacecraft heading out of the solar system .

In September of 2004 the primary investor decided after sinking $7M into both ventures to shut them down. (Chafer is contractually prevented from identifying that person.) Since then, Chafer managed to re-acquire Celestis, which by 2001 had launched four space burial flights, including one that carred the remains of Gene Roddenberry and Gerard O'Neil.

Chafer's new company is called Space Services and it arranged with SpaceX for secondary payload accommodations on the Falcon I. Orbital Sciences had declined to continue to provide such flights and Chafer said low cost launchers in Russia are not very practical for the relatives and friends of the deceased who want to see the rockets take off in person.

He has not yet been able to fully revive Team Encounter. It was an interesting project not only as a public participation type of space venture but also because it was one of the first private spaceflight companies to win "data buy" style contracts from the government. NASA had awarded Team Encounter a $6.5M contract to test an “Inertial Stellar Compass” (ISC). There was also a contract with NOAA to study the feasibility of a polesitter orbit in which a solar sail would essentially hover over a polar region.

The latter work will now get a second chance. In September 2005, the Advanced Space Systems division of Space Services, along with several partner companies, got a 5-month $300k grant from NOAA to pursue the polesitter studies.

Chafer's ongoing efforts illustrate the very difficult challenges that entrepreneurs face in trying to build new space markets (or any new market for that matter). I find it encouraging, though, that he and others like him continue to plug away despite all the struggles and disappointments. <<

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

pmshayley — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 18:11:47 GMT

No offense, "Whip-it", but, as you can tell from my previous post, I am not about to try a link provided by someone whose screen name contains the word "whip".

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

Whip-it — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:40:04 GMT

www.teamencounter.nl still exists
- Use http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr to translate

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

steelerfan092 — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 22:35:35 GMT

What is Team Encounter? What was being launched? Magazine?

Re: Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

pmshayley — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:07:19 GMT

Okay, major freak out time here dudes! I put the words "team encounter" into a Yahoo search, and clicked on the first item that came up(because it mentioned "solar sails" and "NASA" and looked legit. It sent me to a church's website.

I went back, and clicked on a link that took me an entry on space.com. At the bottom of that page was a link to TEAM ENCOUNTER. I clicked on it, and it took me to a rather explicit gay(in case the censors take that word out, see: homosapien(delete the "sapien" part, add a term that refers to a feeling of horniness) website.

I officially quit trying to be nice. You all have me going to church and websites that frighten me(and I am not a homophobe!). Holey moley, I need a shower.

Team Encounter Mission: What Happened?

Quazar — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 20:02:00 GMT

Those who purchased Team Encounter kits may want to keep an ear to the news.
Many of us are considering getting a lawyer to file a class action suit against those who started this. The web site is long gone, their phone is disconnected and the office has been abandoned.
I have spent months trying to contact anyone envolved in this project.
We believe this has been a galactic con job and at least, the millions of us who bought into this thing should get their money back. It's a shame because so many people were looking foward to this launch.
If anyone knows what's up with Team Encounter, please reply.