Ted the Penguin

…Aspire to the stars

From the LiftPort Staff Blog; by Brian Dunbar

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

As many of you know, I work for LiftPort. I’ve worked for them since the start. I’ve known Michael Laine through the thick and thin, and I know enough to realize that this won’t stop him.

I just got done with an hour long emergency conference call in response to the above issue(s). What is going to happen? Not especially clear yet, but we’ll be talking about it in the blog very soon. Essentially the LiftPort as we know it, built it, poured sweat into it, and are so passionate for… failed. It’s a grim reality.

That being said, we’re not going away. We’ve got some ideas to pull our proverbial rears out of the fire. Of course, if you happen to have $300,000 for a dream and a better world, a better future, let us know.

We’re still aspiring to the stars and we won’t give up. Not that easily.