In 2004-5, Microcosm and its sister corporation, Scorpius Space Launch Company (SSLC), were
working with the government on low-cost launch. The program had started in the 1990’s and was
going well, but the government decided not to continue the tank work because the major industrial
players had concluded that all-composite tanks were simply not viable and couldn’t work in space
or at high pressures. There was no point in spending more money on a tank that couldn’t work.
Microcosm and SSLC believed that it could be made to work and used their own funds to build
and successfully test all-composite, linerless tanks. They have since sold their entirely new tanks
to many space companies and used them in multiple space programs. On February 22, 2024, they
became the very first commercial tanks on the surface of the Moon.
