Even though Rotary Rocket Co. is functioning without a permanent CEO and is still having difficulty raising capital, the reusable launch vehicle start-up is not throwing in the towel just yet.

“We want to be in the launch business and we eventually want to fly people into space–the goals are the same,” Richard Stockmans, director of business development, told Space Business News. “But we can’t raise the amount of money we planned to so we are going to raise less and achieve something smaller and go forward with our business. Now whether the vehicle is with a roton or not remains to be seen.”

Lack of interest from the investor community was the driving force behind Gary Hudson‘s departure June 26 as CEO. He remains, however, tied to the company he founded in 1996 by remaining as an engineering consultant.

“Gary was basically sick and tired of functioning in an arena where the investors were not providing the capital needed and he now does not even think it is possible to raise the amount of financing needed which for us was around $200 million,” Stockmans said.

Currently, Helena Hardman has stepped up from Chief Financial Officer to acting CEO. Stockmans said that the investment community had a difficult problem buying into the proposed technology. Therefore Hardman, along with the rest of the fledgling team, are reviewing the technical hardware of the Roton C-9. “If we find significant technical problems with our prototype, we will fix those problems so we can then move forward,” Stockmans added.

Even though others in the RLV community are raising capital and argue the investment community is interested in such ventures if the right plan comes along, some venture capitalists believe this business is a tough sell.

“Given the amount of capital they need, it is a challenge to present an economic justification that can attract that amount of capital,” said John Higginbotham, SpaceVest chairman. “They must have a functional vehicle and a believable business model in terms of revenue generation and margin generation.”