Rocket Company's Property Seized

MOJAVE, CA-Rotary Rocket Co., the company that’s trying to build a reusable spaceship, has had its property seized by the government for failing to pay its property taxes.

The Kern County treasurer-tax collector also seized Rotary’s other assets, including its low-altitude test craft that essentially looks like a six-story traffic cone with helicopter blades on top. The tax collector’s office says all the property will be auctioned off Jan. 10 to cover unpaid taxes totaling about $56,000.

The company, which is partially financed by best-selling author Tom Clancy, unveiled its strange-looking test aircraft last year. Among the crowd of 1,500 onlookers was Clancy, whose work includes the military thriller Hunt for Red October. At the time he invested $1 million in Rotary Rocket, Clancy said he promised it was “going to change the world.”.

Though the company planned to build a fleet of spaceships, Rotary Rocket spokesman Richard Stockman says an industrywide decline in investments in aerospace technology has made it increasingly difficult for Rotary Rocket to raise additional capital.