The structure of Mojave Aerospace Ventures appears to be the basis of the deal between Allen and Rutan for the funding of Tier One. The company owns all the intellectual property of the Tier One project, such as patents, and so controls commercial exploitation. Allen, the sole source of funding for Tier One, is the majority owner. Rutan, having developed the technology, owns a minority stake.[citation needed]
This stands in contrast to the company more usually associated with Tier One, Scaled Composites, which, as of 2007, is owned by Northrop Grumman.[2]
MAV serves to separate[clarification needed] Tier One spinoffs from Scaled.[citation needed] Mojave Aerospace Ventures is part of Allen's Vulcan Aerospace.[3]
The designs for the Tier 1b customer suborbital spaceflight vehicles are referred to as SpaceShipTwo (SS2) and its carrier aircraft is White Knight Two (WK2). The system, a suborbital space tourist system.[4][5]
A further development of the technology, Tier Two and SpaceShipThree (SS3) was mooted. Either as, initially an orbital system,[6] or, later, suborbital transcontinental/transoceanic transport. SS3 would eventually become into a further development of Tier 1b.
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