The Kistler Aerospace Corp. was
founded in 1993, one of several
aerospace startup companies
established after the end of the Cold
War to lower the cost of launching
small-sized satellites into low-Earth
orbit.269 In 1995, Dr. George E.
Mueller, Director of NASA’s Apollo
Program and an early champion
of the Space Shuttle, joined Kistler
as the company’s CEO, and the
company began development of the
Kistler K-1 vehicle.