Commercial Space of the 21st
Century
11-18-14
Although the term “commercial space” was perhaps seldom used
during the beginning of the space program, it came into
existence as soon as NASA was formed in 1957.
Anything considered a “NASA contract” comprised a private
enterprise performing the duties of providing units or
subassemblies of hardware or other needed services.
Until the concept arose for a private firm to send an
unmanned satellite into space did the term “commercial space
flight” start to become more heard of, and the U.S.
Communications Satellite Act of 1962 opened the way to a new
league of venturism.
However, the satellites of this era were all launched using
government launch vehicles.
The history of a
fully-privatized space transport system became noted by the
German company OTRAG
(Orbital Transport and Rockets, Inc.) which was the first known
commercial developer and producer of space launch vehicles.
In the 1970s and 80s, OTRAG was led by the German
aerospace engineer Lutz Kayser, who proposed they could derive
an alternative launch system much
less expensive than Europe’s Ariane and USA’s space shuttle,
costing one tenth of a conventional system.
OTRAG set up operations in Zaire in 1977, but drew
political differences from France and the Soviet Union, causing
it to move to the desert of Libya in 1980.
Kayser’s innovation was to make use of
common-rocket-propulsion-units (CRPU) by way of mass production
without the reusability of spent stages, which also allowed
labor to be reduced. In
mid-2006 Armadillo
Aerospace reported the acknowledgment of OTRAG’s design, but
said reusable stages will eventually take over.
By the 21st century numerous modern projects of
suborbital and orbital systems developed, and in 2006 NASA
announced a program called Commercial Orbital Transportation
Services (COTS) to coordinate the delivery of crew and cargo to
the International Space Station by private companies.
NASA could send payloads to the ISS for less than the
Space Shuttle.
By the year 2012, it was acclaimed “the year of private space”,
due in part to the success of
SpaceX who conducted
two launches to the International Space Station, and highlighted
by the experienced engineer teams of startup companies
Planetary Resources
and Golden Spike.
Planetary Resources intends to develop and employ
technologies for asteroid mining, while Golden Spike plans to
provide complete commercial human lunar excursions to countries,
corporations, and individuals.
At about this time, commercial space is said to have
chimed-to-a-different-tone.
Space Adventures
organized the flights of the first private space explorers
including Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth.
It offers availability today for space flight missions to
the International Space Station, around the Moon, zero-gravity
flights, and reservations on future suborbital spacecraft.
It formed in 1998 located in Vienna, VA, founded by Eric
C. Andersen and Peter
Diamandis.
A world-class systems integrator and electronic systems
provider, Sierra Nevada
Corporation is known for its innovative technology
solutions. It is
the top-woman-owned-federal-contractor in the United States,
headquartered in Sparks, Nevada and
whose specialties
include Renewable Energy, Telemedicine, Nanotechnology,
Microsatellites and Human Space Flight.
Reflecting a motto “we return”,
Moon Express is
a lunar transportation and data services company destined to
send a series of robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing
commercial exploration and development, deemed to benefit Earth.
It has recently unveiled its “MX-1” lunar lander
spacecraft capable of delivering scientific and commercial
payloads at a fraction of a cost than otherwise thought
possible. The robot
lander contends to operate on hydrogen peroxide, a water
enriched oxygen compound; and because water has been discovered
on the moon, Moon Express claims the MX-1 has a potential source
of rocket fuel on the lunar surface.
Spaceport America
is the world’s first purpose-built commercial space port, and
was officially declared open on October 18, 2011 in New Mexico.
Its tenants include
Virgin Galactic and
SpaceX.
It was initially a
concept started by Stanford University lecturer Dr. Burton Lee
in 1990. With
18,000 acres, a 12,000 foot spaceway, and a nearby vertical
launch area, it was completed in 2012 at a total project cost of
$209 million.
A premier manufacturer of high performance space suits,
Orbital Outfitters
also provides full scale vehicle mockups, one of which is the
XCOR Lynx. It calls
itself a NewSpace company, a term used to describe a community
of relatively new aerospace companies working toward developing
low-cost access to space.
Paragon
is a provider of environmental controls for extreme and
hazardous environments.
They design and test premier life support systems for
astronauts, water divers, and other extreme environment
adventurers.
Based at Mojave Spaceport in Mojave,
California, XCOR
Aerospace develops and produces reusable launch vehicles
(RLVs). One of its
projects is the Lynx rocketplane, designed for one pilot and one
ticketed passenger, it travels to suborbital flights of 100 km
(or 62 miles), the edge of space known as the Karman line.
ARES Corporation
professes a top-notch team of engineers and scientists focusing
to solve the industry’s most complex technical challenges in the
areas of space, defense, and nuclear energy.
It is one of the foremost engineering and project
management companies in the United States, providing support to
commercial space industry in regards to safety and mission
assurance, primarily due to its relation with NASA and their
safety approval process.
David Clark Company
has pioneered the design, development, and manufacture of air
and space crew protective equipment since 1941.
With products ranging from anti-G suits to space suits,
the company’s tradition of providing leading edge equipment for
manned aerospace programs continues into the future.
Griffin Communications Group,
once a subsidiary of Griffin Foods featuring a popular line of
pancake and waffle syrups, is now an award-winning team of
communication specialists led by aerospace veterans Gwen
Griffin, President & CEO, and Jeff Carr, VP Aerospace
Communications.
Flying scientific payloads to above 99.9% of the Earth’s
atmosphere at altitudes of 30-40km,
Near Space Corporation
uses stratospheric balloon platforms for testing and
maturing space related technologies.
Located in Madison,
Wisconsin is ORBITEC,
a subsystems integrator offering commercially mature solutions
in five areas including Propulsion, Space Resources, and Energy
Systems; Human Support Systems and Instrumentation; and
Emergency Response Systems.
ORBITEC is short for Orbital
Technologies Corporation and is a subsidiary of Sierra
Nevada Corporation.
Also
located at the Mojave Spaceport is
Scaled Composites, founded by
Burt Rutan in 1982.
It specializes in composite structural design, analysis
and fabrication, and developmental flight tests of air and space
vehicles.
Waypoint 2 Space
operates from the hub of space technology, NASA Johnson Space
Center in Houston, TX.
It has assembled a team of experts comprised of former
NASA and military personnel to help develop the most
comprehensive instructional space training programs available.
They are safety focused commercial spaceflight training
programs designed to meet (or exceed) the needs of emerging
suborbital and orbital spaceflight service providers.
These are only a sample from the complete roster of businesses
and organizations holding membership with the
Commercial
Spaceflight Federation, the association working to make
human spaceflight a reality.
The federation’s interests are to promote the development
of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of
safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the
industry.
As promising as commercial
space flight hopes to be, it isn’t without some rough edges.
On October 28th of this year, an unmanned Orbital Science
Antares rocket blew apart on the launch pad, dousing its project
payload (5,000 lbs of supplies to the International Space
Station) and destroying the Cygnus spacecraft, a loss of 200
million dollars. Three
days later, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo broke apart in
mid-air losing one of its test pilots.
“Space is hard and today
was a tough day,” was the statement coming from Virgin Galactic:
“The future rests in many
ways on hard days like this, but we believe we owe it to
the
team, that has been working so hard on
this endeavour, to understand this and to move forward.
And that is what we’ll
do.”
