…. aspire to the stars
Even when you’re standing in sh*t, you can still look up and aspire to the stars.
~ David Gerrold
Pardon the swears. We’re all still getting our heads into Transparency and a 24/7 attention cycle. Read something about a company on Friday and if there is nothing on their blog by Saturday you wonder if they’ve got a clue. Call this a place holder then; we are operating on 24/7 attention cycle but people need sleep, time to digest bad news, make plans, coordinate.
If you follow space elevator news you will have already read this, or will soon read it.
But today, roughly two hours before the panel, an obstacle was placed in Michael and Liftport’s path. Zealot that he is, even his belief and passion could not hold against this reality of finance. They lost their office space. The money ran out. And on Monday they will announce this fact.
I almost cried in sympathy as Michael described how this would impact not only Liftport but his personal life. He had no home, no place for his animals, no job, no source of income, and no place for his staff. A three million dollar building that held the hopes and dreams of more than just a few space crazies was taken away from a project that for better or worse is attempting to bring about a future I was weaned on. And a future I don’t often get to remember in a day to day way and now perhaps will not see even in dreams anymore.
A condensed transcript is here.
Our thanks to Julie Fredrickson and Erik of Pikamac for their kind words.
So what is going on? See above. What are we going to do about it? We don’t know enough at this point to lay out a plan – information gathering lags behind the event like thunder lags behind lightning. We’ll let you know as soon as we can.
Respectfully Submitted,
Brian Dunbar
April 16th, 2007 at 4:46 am
This is very sad news, both for Michael (who I know personally) and for the space elevator developement in general. While I hope -and believe- that this isn’t the end for Liftport, it will probably slow down progress if Michael can’t work on the project full-time anymore and there is no office space to host some primary facilities for a company.
Let’s all hope for some rich guy or government to turn the tide! Really…can’t the government of the US route just a fraction of their 500,000,000,000 $ defense budget to a project that could change the future of mankind?
April 16th, 2007 at 9:55 am
[...] the leading space elevator companies, may be forced to shut down after losing their office space. The official Liftport staff blog indicates that times are tough, but therer’s no definite word…. I’m not ashamed to say that I’d be gutted to see Liftport fold – in a world where so [...]
April 16th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Utter sadness. Will LiftPort be able to keep the trade marked name, just in case they re-emerge from the ashes? (if they have to close down, at least temporary?)
April 17th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Best wishes in this trying time. Remember how many successful companies started in garages.
April 17th, 2007 at 11:24 am
[...] Affairs on Saturday [transcript]. The LiftPort Staff Blog has also yet to clear up the matter, and expresses some confusion at the situation. LiftPort’s financial problems are well known, but the news is still a [...]
November 27th, 2007 at 7:59 am
[...] resonates with me, and the rest of my team. And there are times when you have a really bad day (http://www.liftport.com/progress/wp/?p=1139) and everything comes crashing down around [...]