Virgin Galactic lawsuit against Firefly moves forward
Virgin Galactic last week moved forward aggressively in its lawsuit against Firefly Space Systems, its officers, and its business partners for using stealing trade secrets.
According to the Complaint, Galactic hired Markusic in 2011 as its VP of Propulsion. Markusic’s role gave him intimate knowledge of the Company’s research into liquid rocket propulsion, space vehicle architecture, “aerospike” technology, and other confidential projects. While still employed at Galactic, Markusic allegedly solicited business partners and founded Firefly based on concepts and data he obtained in the course of his work. Galactic maintains that Markusic and Firefly relied on and continues to use the Company’s technical and marketing information, as well as Markusic’s engineering notes from his tenure at Galactic, to develop products such as a recently announced small launch vehicle.
The worst thing about this court battle to me is that if Virgin Galactic has developed worthwhile technology in connection with the aerospike engine, they have done nothing to develop it, and are now acting to squelch someone else’s effort.
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Virgin Galactic last week moved forward aggressively in its lawsuit against Firefly Space Systems, its officers, and its business partners for using stealing trade secrets.
According to the Complaint, Galactic hired Markusic in 2011 as its VP of Propulsion. Markusic’s role gave him intimate knowledge of the Company’s research into liquid rocket propulsion, space vehicle architecture, “aerospike” technology, and other confidential projects. While still employed at Galactic, Markusic allegedly solicited business partners and founded Firefly based on concepts and data he obtained in the course of his work. Galactic maintains that Markusic and Firefly relied on and continues to use the Company’s technical and marketing information, as well as Markusic’s engineering notes from his tenure at Galactic, to develop products such as a recently announced small launch vehicle.
The worst thing about this court battle to me is that if Virgin Galactic has developed worthwhile technology in connection with the aerospike engine, they have done nothing to develop it, and are now acting to squelch someone else’s effort.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
They’ve already effectively closed Firefly. What are they trying to do now? Make the rubble bounce?
This seems more than a bit punitive, to the point of seeking to “teach a lesson” to others in the field, since Firefly is no longer competitive. That is an unwelcome development. It is truly strange that a company focused on pursuing SpaceShip2 in 2013 would be working on aerospikes at all, and even more so that having decided not to pursue them, they are trying to keep others from doing so. It’s not like others have not flown these sorts of engines in the recent past, after long labors of their own.
George Whitesides did not show this level of vindictiveness in any association we have had with him. I am wondering about Mr. Branson, however. Is there a claim of some specific improvement being stolen that is truly worthwhile, …or is Branson saying that “if *I* ever paid you to work on aerospikes, you cannot work on aerospikes for anyone else”???
Robert wrote: “if Virgin Galactic has developed worthwhile technology in connection with the aerospike engine, they have done nothing to develop it, and are now acting to squelch someone else’s effort.”
This is starting to remind me of the Wright Brothers. They invented the airplane and three axis control, then spent the next several years defending their patents instead of continuing to advance the state of the art. But then again, the Wrights had been shopkeepers, not inventors, so it is hard to say how much additional ingenuity was left in them.
Virgin Galactic may end up doing the same thing, except without the patents to defend. The heritage Virgin companies are not engineering companies but provide services to the general public. Virgin may not have a lot of ingenuity or much incentive to develop the aerospike engine.
It is hard to say what is proprietary to Virgin, what they innovated themselves, but I wonder whether this lawsuit is merely sour grapes that Markusic left to start his own company, working on the same type of engine (as Tom Billings just suggested).
According to Firefly’s website, Markusic is already well versed in rocketry, having been “Principal Propulsion Engineer at SpaceX” as well as a lifelong propulsion engineer, so it is difficult to know what he may have learned at Virgin or why Virgin thinks that he is using their proprietary information.
http://www.fireflyspace.com/about/the-team
The advantage to the arbitration and disadvantage of the courts is that in the courts the proprietary information may end up becoming public knowledge.