For someone at the forefront of the British space industry, Steve Bennett's life couldn't be further removed from Elon Musk's. Having just celebrated his 60th birthday, the CEO of Starchaser Industries told the MEN he had been passing the time 'chilling' on his narrowboat in Nantwich.
Starchaser Industries is an aerospace company based in Hyde, founded by Steve in 1992. A company born from his childhood fascination with space travel, which began with the Apollo moon landing in 1969.
"I actually didn't watch it because I was five and my mom wouldn't let me," Steve laughed. "It was about three in the morning. I asked her, 'Can I stay up and watch it?' and she said no, it's already bedtime, but there will be another one."
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Read today's top Manchester Evening News storiesSince then, he admits to being "extremely attracted to space exploration." But his own trajectory to the stars hasn't followed a conventional route, if ever there was one for a boy from Dukinfield.
He spent his childhood building a chemistry laboratory and launching homemade rockets, to the amazement of his family and friends. After leaving school, he worked as a laboratory technician before joining the army in 1983.
Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features.He worked his way up to Lance Corporal and trained as a petroleum operator. After his time in the army he returned to work as a laboratory technician and later as a physics lecturer at Salford University.
But it wasn't until he was in his 30s and had a family of his own that he decided to follow his dream of becoming a pioneer in the field of space travel by founding Starchaser Industries. Many of the company's early ambitions focused on winning the
It was eventually won in 2004 by Mojave Aerospace Ventures for their SpaceShipOne. The winning technology was later licensed by Richard Branson to create Virgin Galactic, a British-American space company. It was a sobering moment for Steve, who had been working on a relatively meager budget for years.
'When I was working on the X Prize I had raised a few million pounds and I thought we were well on our way. But the design that won the X Prize won because they spent $25 million to win a $10 million prize. That's the kind of money you have to put into it.
Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group at by clicking on this link"If you look at the money that Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (founder of retail giant Amazon and space company Blue Origin) put into it, it is a huge amount. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just very sobering. "I thought I could do it with around £10 million, but that's absolutely impossible because there's so much involved," he said.
Although Starchaser has never had anything like the budget of people with deep pockets like Branson, Musk and Bezos, they have arrived relatively late to the party compared to Steve, who started launching his rockets from locations in Morecambe Bay and the Ministry of Defense (MOD). the 1990s and 2000s. In contrast, he has had to raise money and visit schools, he says, to "keep the lights on."
It has been a constant source of frustration, not helped by what he sees as a lack of ambition in the British government. "We have had no government support at all, which is really annoying," he said.
"You have the UK Space Agency and they have a significant budget. They do make funding available, but they break it up into such small pieces and there are so many caveats that we just can't qualify for it. It's very, very frustrating."
Join our Facebook group showcasing the history, memories and people of Greater Manchester here.Another obstacle, he said, is the lack of assistance in finding a suitable launch site for Starchaser's latest rocket, the Astra-X - a nine-meter-long, fully reusable rocket that weighs about 800 kg. The rocket has been ready for launch for 18 months, but Steve says they can't find anywhere to launch it.
Previously he could launch his rockets from MOD locations, but he says current tensions surrounding the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have led to booked launches being canceled at the last minute. Another once productive launch site was Morecambe Bay, but since the last successful launch there in 2000 he laments that the "hierarchy has changed". According to him, this has led to the launch of the Astra-X being suspended until a suitable launch site is found.
Do you love Greater Manchester's past? Sign up for our new nostalgia newsletter and never miss a thing.But no matter the obstacles that come his way, it's the same sense of childhood wonder about the moon landings that keeps Steve getting up in the morning to continue his work. And his Hyde-based space company still has big ambitions.
"One thing that has always driven me is that I have always wanted to travel to space. From a completely personal and selfish perspective," he says.
"I have the technology to do it, I just need the support to complete this project. That's what I want to do and I want to bring people with me. We've already sold tickets for the first flight, but I just want share this with as many people as possible.
"We are doing things in Manchester and we are actually making progress. We are physically making and testing this kit, but it is very difficult to get financing or investors.
'I have come up with a new kind of concept for launching rockets and I have to get money for it. Basically it's electric propulsion to get the rocket up there.
"Imagine a fully reusable rocket that uses electricity instead of chemicals." This technology, Steve says, would be reusable, extremely safe and reliable, which would mean lower costs. He hopes to get universities and some bright postgraduate students involved in his potential all-electric rocket launch system so that he can eventually build a workable prototype for testing.
So, while Starchaser's current space ambitions surround the launch of Astra-X and the development of innovative launch technologies, what predictions does he see happening regarding space travel 25 years from now? "It's really anyone's game, really," says Steve.
'The space industry is going to be huge. Right now, SpaceX dominates the market with what they do: rockets that you can launch dozens of times or more.
'But I think the space frontier is going to open up. It will develop in ways we cannot imagine now. There will be a lot of money to be made.
'People will be able to holiday in space, and I'm not just talking about putting on a spacesuit and taking a short jump into space. There will be space hotels, like cruise ships.
"You know, just like you take a cruise around the Caribbean, in 25 years I see people taking cruise ships into space around the Earth, or to the moon and back. The technology to do this has been around for 50 years, there all it takes is someone to bring it all together."
Perhaps someone like Steve, despite the fact that, according to the space entrepreneur, his company and his ambitions are a kind of 'square peg in a round hole'.
Or perhaps someone like Elon Musk, who seems to have both the ambition and the finances to push the boundaries of space travel. "I've met Elon Musk a few times," says Steve. The first when sitting next to him at an X Prize fundraising dinner in New York circa 2003.
"The next time I met him was about a year later, at a 'brainstorming' event in New Mexico, where the New Mexico government wanted to hear from space industry experts about ideas for developing their emerging spaceport. Again, I sat next to Elon the whole time."
Despite finding the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX "a bit of an odd character," Steve believes that "he's doing great things." Adding: "I can't speak more highly of him. He is very innovative."
Currently, Steve and Starchaser are desperate for a launch site for the Astra-X and are asking owners with private land to get in touch. "If we can get permission from the landowners, we can get permission from the Civil Aviation Authority - and we can launch this rocket," he said.
They are also relaunching the Space4school program, he says, to inspire current and future generations of schoolchildren. Motorists are often stunned to see Steve piloting one of his own rockets from the back of a truck while going to and from school.
He believes this part of Starchaser's work is incredibly important. Not only to help fund his company's own ambitions and 'keep the lights on', but also to inspire the next generation of space innovators.
More information about Starchaser's Astra-X and Space4schools projects can be found on their website.
