Excalibur Almaz was a private spaceflight company which planned to provide a variety of deep space crewed exploration missions, micro-gravity science, and payload delivery.
[3] The company had entered into an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) activities in 2011[4] but was not selected to receive funding under any phases of it.
Based on independent market studies, these missions beyond Low Earth Orbit will provide the best business opportunity for commercial space transportation companies.
[10] In October 2011, NASA signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement for work related to the Commercial Crew Development program.
[2] Excalibur Almaz had established a 2012 agreement with XCOR Aerospace to provide a suite of suborbital flight experiences as training milestones in preparation for orbital and trans-lunar missions.
The Russian VA (Vozvraschaemyi Apparat, return vehicle) crew and cargo spacecraft was offered by the Berlin-based Lempertz auction house at its newly opened gallery in Brussels.
The VA capsule was sold to Excalibur Almaz (EA), a British company that planned to reuse the Soviet artefacts to offer commercial spaceflight services.
In total, EA acquired four VA capsules and two Almaz (Salyut) modules in hopes of flying the combined spacecraft as a crew and cargo transportation system to the Moon, the asteroids and deep space.
[20] In September 2013 Dula, J. Buckner Hightower and Excalibur Almaz Ltd. were brought to court under the charges of fraud of $300,000 for the planned asteroid mining project.