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Private spaceflight is anyspaceflight development that is not conducted by agovernment agency, such asNASA orESA.
During the early decades of theSpace Age, the governmentspace agencies of theSoviet Union and United States pioneeredspace technology in collaboration with affiliateddesign bureaus in the USSR andprivate companies in the US. They entirely funded both the development of new spaceflight technologies and the operational costs of spaceflight.[1] Following a similar model of space technology development, theEuropean Space Agency was formed in 1975.[2]Arianespace, born out of ESA's independent spaceflight efforts, became the world's first commerciallaunch service provider in the early 1980s.[3][4] Subsequently, largedefense contractors began to develop and operate spacelaunch systems, which were derived from government rockets.
Private spaceflight in Earth orbit includescommunications satellites,satellite television,satellite radio,astronaut transport andsub-orbital and orbitalspace tourism.[5] In the United States, the FAA has created a new certification calledCommercial Astronaut, a new occupation.[2]
In the 2000s,entrepreneurs began designing—and by the 2010s, deploying—space systemscompetitive to thegovernmental systems[6][7] of the early decades of the space age.[8][9]: 7 These new offerings have brought about significantmarket competition in space launch services after 2010 that had not been present previously, principally through the reduction of the cost of space launch and the availability of more space launchcapacity.[10]
Private spaceflight accomplishments to date include flyingsuborbitalspaceplanes (SpaceShipOne andSpaceShipTwo), launchingorbitalrockets, flying two orbitalexpandable test modules (Genesis I andII). On the opposite, launching astronauts to theInternational Space Station and certainsatellite launches are performed on behalf of and financed by government agencies.
Planned private spaceflights beyond Earth orbit includepersonal spaceflights around the Moon.[2] Two privateorbital habitat prototypes are already in Earth orbit, with larger versions to follow.[11] Planned private spaceflights beyond Earth orbit includesolar sailing prototypes (LightSail-3).
During the principal period ofspaceflight in the mid-twentieth century, onlynation states developed and flew spacecraft above theKármán line, the nominal boundary of space. Both theU.S. civilian space program andSoviet space program were operated using mainly military pilots asastronauts. During this period, no commercial space launches were available to private operators, and no private organization was able to offer space launches. Eventually, private organizations were able to both offer and purchase space launches, thus beginning the period of private spaceflight.
The first phase of private space operation was the launch of the first commercialcommunications satellites. The U.S.Communications Satellite Act of 1962 allowed commercial consortia owning and operating their own satellites, although these were still deployed on state-owned launch vehicles.
In 1980, theEuropean Space Agency createdArianespace, a company to be operated commercially after initial hardware and launch facilities were developed withgovernment funding.[12] Arianespace has since launched numerous satellites as a commercial entity.[13]
The history of full private space transportation includes early efforts by German companyOTRAG in the 20th century. Founded in 1975 as the first private company to attempt to launch a private spacecraft,[14] testing of itsOTRAG rocket[15] began in 1977.[16] The history also covers numerous modern orbital and suborbital launch systems in the 21st century. More recent commercial spaceflight projects include the suborbital flights ofVirgin Galactic andBlue Origin, the orbital flights ofSpaceX and otherCOTS participants.
Development of alternatives to government-providedspace launch services began in earnest in the 2000s. Private interests began funding limited development programs, but theUS government later sponsored aseries ofprograms to incentivize and encourage private companies to begin offering both cargo, and later, crewspace transportation services.
Lower prices for launch services after 2010, and published prices for standard launch services, have brought about significantspace launch market competition that had not been present previously.[17][18][19][20][7] By 2012, a private company had begun transporting cargo to and from theInternational Space Station, while a second private company was scheduled to begin making deliveries in 2013, ushering in a time of regular private space cargo delivery to and return from the government-owned space facility inlow Earth orbit (LEO).[21] In this new paradigm for LEO cargo transport, the government contracts for and pays for cargo services on substantially privately developedspace vehicles rather than the government operating each of the cargo vehicles andcargo delivery systems. As of 2013[update], there is amix of private and government resupply vehicles being used for the ISS, as theRussianSoyuz andProgress vehicles, and theEuropean Space Agency (ESA)ATV (through 2014) and theJapaneseKounotori (through 2021) remain in operation after the 2011 retirement of the USSpace Shuttle.
In June 2013, British newspaperThe Independent claimed that "the space race is flaring back into life, and it's not massive institutions such as NASA that are in the running. The old view that human space flight is so complex, difficult and expensive that only huge government agencies could hope to accomplish it is being disproved by a new breed of flamboyant space privateers, who are planning to send humans out beyond the Earth's orbit for the first time since 1972,"[22] particularly noting projects underway byMars One,Inspiration Mars Foundation,Bigelow Aerospace andSpaceX.[22]
TheCommercial Space Launch Act of 1984 required encouragement of commercial space ventures, adding a new clause to NASA'smission statement:
Yet one of NASA's early actions was to effectively prevent private space flight through a large amount of regulation. From the beginning, though, this met significant opposition not only by the private sector, but in Congress. In 1962, Congress passed its first law pushing back the prohibition on private involvement in space, theCommunications Satellite Act of 1962. While largely focusing on the satellites of its namesake, this was described by both the law's opponentsand advocates of private space, as the first step on the road to privatisation.
While launch vehicles were originally bought from private contractors, from the beginning of the Shuttle program until theSpace ShuttleChallenger disaster in 1986, NASA attempted to position its shuttle as the sole legal space launch option.[23]But with the mid-launch explosion/loss ofChallenger came the suspension of thegovernment-operated shuttle flights, allowing the formation of a commercial launch industry.[24]
On 4 July 1982, the Reagan administration released National Security Decision Directive Number 42 which officially set its goal to expand United States private-sector investment and involvement in civil space and space-related activities.[25]
On 16 May 1983, the Reagan administration issued National Security Decision Directive Number 94 encouraging the commercialization of expendable launch vehicles (ELVs), which directed that, "The U.S. Government will license, supervise, and/or regulate U.S. commercial ELV operations only to the extent required to meet its national and international obligations and to ensure public safety."[26]
On 30 October 1984, US PresidentRonald Reagan signed into law theCommercial Space Launch Act.[27] This enabled an American industry of private operators ofexpendable launch systems. Prior to the signing of this law, all commercial satellite launches in the United States were restricted by Federal regulation to NASA'sSpace Shuttle.
On 11 February 1988, the Presidential Directive declared that the government should purchase commercially available space goods and services to the fullest extent feasible and shall not conduct activities with potential commercial applications that preclude or deter Commercial Sector space activities except for national security or public safety reasons.[28]
On 5 November 1990, United States PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush signed into law theLaunch Services Purchase Act.[29] The Act, in a complete reversal of the earlier Space Shuttle monopoly, ordered NASA to purchase launch services for its primary payloads from commercial providers whenever such services are required in the course of its activities.
In 1996, the United States government selectedLockheed Martin andBoeing to each developEvolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) to compete for launch contracts and provide assured access to space. The government's acquisition strategy relied on the strong commercial viability of both vehicles to lower unit costs. This anticipated market demand did not materialise, but both theDelta IV andAtlas V EELVs remain in active service.
Commercial launches outnumbered government launches at theEastern Range in 1997.[30]
TheCommercial Space Act was passed in 1998 and implements many of the provisions of theLaunch Services Purchase Act of 1990.[31]
Nonetheless, until 2004 NASA kept private space flight effectively illegal.[32] But that year, theCommercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 required that NASA and theFederal Aviation Administration legalise private space flight.[33]The 2004 Act also specified a "learning period" which restricted the ability of the FAA to enact regulations regarding the safety of people who might actually fly on commercial spacecraft through 2012, ostensibly because spaceflight participants would share the risk of flight throughinformed consent procedures of human spaceflight risks, while requiring the launch provider to be legally liable for potential losses to uninvolved persons and structures.[34]
To the end of 2014, commercial passenger flights in space has remained effectively illegal, as the FAA has refused to give a commercial operator's license to any private space company.[35]
TheUnited States updated US commercial space legislation with the passage of theSpurring Private Aerospace Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Act of 2015 (SPACE Act of 2015) in November 2015.[36]
The update US law explicitly allows "US citizens to engage in the commercial exploration and exploitation of 'space resources' [including... water and minerals]". The right does not extend tobiological life, so anything that is alive may not be exploited commercially.[37] The Act further asserts that "the United States does not [(by this Act)] assertsovereignty, or sovereign orexclusive rights or jurisdiction over, or the ownership of, anycelestial body".[37]
The SPACE Act includes the extension ofindemnification of US launch providers for extraordinary catastrophic third-party losses of a failed launch through 2025, while the previous indemnification law was scheduled to expire in 2016. The Act also extends, through 2025, the "learning period" restrictions which limit the ability of the FAA to enact regulations regarding the safety of spaceflightparticipants.[34]
Indemnification for extraordinary third-party losses has, as of 2015, been a component of US space law for over 25 years, and during this time, "has never been invoked in any commercial launch mishap".[34]
In 1992, a Resurs-500 capsule containing gifts was launched fromPlesetsk Cosmodrome in a private spaceflight calledEurope-America 500. The flight was conceived by the RussianFoundation for Social Inventions andTsSKB-Progress, a Russian rocket-building company, to increase trade between Russia and the United States, and to promote the use of technology once reserved only for military forces. Money for the launch was raised from a collection of Russian companies. The capsule parachuted into the Pacific Ocean and was brought to Seattle by a Russian missile-tracking ship.
Since 1995 Khrunichev'sProton rocket has been marketed throughInternational Launch Services, while theSoyuz rocket is marketed viaStarsem. TheSea Launch project flew the UkrainianZenit rocket.
In 2003, Arianespace joined withBoeing Launch Services andMitsubishi Heavy Industries to create theLaunch Services Alliance. In 2005, continued weak commercial demand for EELV launches drove Lockheed Martin and Boeing to propose a joint venture called theUnited Launch Alliance to service the United States government launch market.[38]
Since the 1980s, various private initiatives havestarted up to pursue the private use ofspace. Traditional costs to launch anything to space have been high—on the order of tens of thousands of US dollars per kilogram—but by 2020, costs on the order of a few thousand dollars per kilogram are being seen from one private launch provider that was an early 2000s startup, with the cost projected to fall to less than a few hundred dollars per kilogram as the technology of a second private spaceflight startup of ~2000 comes into service.[10]
The first privately funded rocket to reach the boundary of space, theKármán line, (although not orbit) wasConestoga I, which was launched bySpace Services Inc. on a suborbital flight to 309 kilometres (192 mi) altitude on 9 September 1982.[39][40] In October 1995, their first (and only) attempt at an orbital launch, Conestoga 1620, failed to achieve orbit due to a guidance system failure.[41]
On April 5, 1990,Orbital Sciences Corporation'sPegasus, anair launched rocket, was the first launch vehicle fully developed by a private company to reach orbit.[42]
In the early 2000s, several public-private corporate partnerships were established in the United States to privately develop spaceflight technology. Several purely private initiatives have shown interest in private endeavors to theinner Solar System.[43]
In 2006, NASA initiated a program to purchase commercialspace transport to carry cargo to theInternational Space Station, while funding a portion of the development of new technology in apublic-private partnership.[9]: 10
In May 2015, the Japanese legislature considered legislation to allow private company spaceflight initiatives in Japan.[44]
In 2016, the United States granted its first clearance for a private flight to the Moon, from the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation.[45]
On 30 May 2020,Crew Dragon Demo-2 operated bySpaceX became the first crewed mission to theInternational Space Station in theCommercial Crew Program.
After 2015, European-based private small-lift launch vehicle development got underway, particularly in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, but "France has largely been left out of this new commercial launch industry".[46] In 2021, theGovernment of France announced a plan to fund the "France-based rocket firmArianeGroup to develop a new small-lift rocket calledMaïa by the year 2026,"[46] which would be a government-funded but commercially developed rocket.
On 22 February 2024, Intuitive Machine's privateOdysseus successfully landed on the Moon after taking off on a SpaceXFalcon 9 liftoff on 15 February 2024 in a mission betweenNASA,SpaceX, andIntuitive Machines. This event marked the first successful landing of a privately owned spacecraft on the Moon and the United States' first lunar landing in over 50 years and the first lander to do so withcryogenicpropellants.[47][48]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2024) |
Today many commercial space transportation companies offer launch services to satellite companies and government space organizations around the world. In 2005, there were 18 total commercial launches and 37 non-commercial launches. Russia flew 44% of commercial orbital launches, while Europe had 28% and the United States had 6%.[49] China's first private launch, a suborbital flight byOneSpace, took place in May 2018.[50]
In recent years, thefunding to support private spaceflight has begun to be raised from a larger pool of sources than the comparatively limited pool of the 1990s. For example, as of June 2013[update] and in the United States alone, tenbillionaires had made "serious investments in private spaceflight activities"[51] at six companies, includingStratolaunch Systems,Planetary Resources,Blue Origin,Virgin Galactic,SpaceX, andBigelow Aerospace. The ten investors werePaul Allen,Larry Page,Eric Schmidt,Ram Shriram,Charles Simonyi,Ross Perot Jr.,Jeff Bezos,Richard Branson,Elon Musk, andRobert Bigelow.[51]
At the start of the private space era it was not yet clear to what extent these entrepreneurs see "legitimate business opportunity, [for example], space tourism and other commercial activities in space, or [are] wealthy men seeking the exclusivity that space offers innovators and investors."[51] There has been speculation as to whether these investments are a "gamble", and whether they will prove lucrative.[51]
As of the early 2020s some of these investments have paid off, with Musk's SpaceX coming to dominate the launch market in mass to orbit and with a $100 billion valuation.[52][53] Other companies such asBigelow Aerospace though have collapsed and left the market.[54] Some aerospace startups, such asRocket Lab, have gone public viaspecial-purpose acquisition company, but their SPAC values have been affected by market volatility.[55]
Some investors see the traditional spaceflight industry as ripe fordisruption, with "a 100-fold improvement [relatively straightforward and] a thousand-fold improvement [possible]".[56] Between 2005 and 2015, there wasUS$10 billion ofprivate capital invested in the space sector,[57] most of it in the United States. Thisliberalized private space sector investments beginning in the 1980s,[27] with additional legislative reforms in the 1990s–2000s.[24][31][33] From 2000 through the end of 2015, a total ofUS$13.3 billion of investment finance was invested in the space sector, withUS$2.9 billion of that beingventure capital.[58] In 2015, venture capital firms investedUS$1.8 billion in private spaceflight companies, more than they had in the previous 15 years combined.[58] As of October 2015[update], the largest and most active investors in space wereLux Capital,Bessemer Venture Partners,Khosla Ventures,Founders Fund,RRE Ventures andDraper Fisher Jurvetson.[57]
Increasing interest by investors in economically driven spaceflight had begun to appear by 2016, and some space ventures had to turn away investor funding.[56] CBInsights in August 2016 published that funding to space startups was "in a slump", although the number of space investment deals per quarter had gone from 2 or 3 in 2012 to 14 by 2015.[59] In 2017, CB Insights ranked the most active space tech investors, ranked from highest to lowest, were Space Angels Networks, Founders Fund, RRE Ventures, Data Collective, Bessemer, Lux Capital,Alphabet,Tencent Holdings, andRothenberg Ventures.[60] In June 2019, Miriam Kramer ofAxios wrote that private spaceflight companies and investors were poised to capitalize on NASA's plan to open up the International Space Station to commercial space ventures.[61]
The space transport business has, historically, had its primary customers in national governments and large commercial segments. Launches of governmentpayloads, including military, civilian and scientific satellites, was the largest market segment in 2007 at nearly $100 billion a year. This segment was dominated by domestic favorites such as theUnited Launch Alliance for U.S. government payloads andArianespace for European satellites until the 2020s when NewSpace launch providers like SpaceX and Blue Origin were able to compete for these contracts.[62]
TheUS government determined to begin a process to purchaseorbital launch services for cargo deliveries to theInternational Space Station (ISS) beginning in the mid-2000s, rather than operate the launch and delivery services as they had with theSpace Shuttle, which was to retire in less than half a decade, and ultimately did retire in 2011. On 18 January 2006, NASA announced an opportunity for US commercial providers to demonstrate orbital transportation services.[63] As of 2008, NASA planned to spend $500 million through 2010 to finance development ofprivate sector capability to transport payloads to theInternational Space Station (ISS).[needs update] This was considered more challenging than then-available commercial space transportation because it would require precisionorbit insertion,rendezvous and possibly docking with another spacecraft. The commercial vendors competed in specific service areas.[64]
In August 2006, NASA announced that two relatively young aerospace companies,SpaceX andRocketplane Kistler, had been awarded $278 million and $207 million, respectively, under the COTS program.[65] In 2008, NASA anticipated that commercialcargo delivery services to and return services from the ISS would be necessary through at least 2015. The NASA Administrator suggested that space transportation services procurement may be expanded to orbitalfuel depots andlunar surface deliveries should the first phase of COTS prove successful.[66]
After it transpired that Rocketplane Kistler was failing to meet its contractual deadlines, NASA terminated its contract with the company in August 2008, after only $32 million had been spent. Several months later, in December 2008, NASA awarded the remaining $170 million in that contract toOrbital Sciences Corporation to develop resupply services to the ISS.[67]
Before 2004, the year it was legalized in the US, no privately operated crewed spaceflight had ever occurred. The only private individuals to journey to space went asspace tourists in theSpace Shuttle or on RussianSoyuz flights toMir or theInternational Space Station.
All private individuals who flew to space beforeDennis Tito's self-financed International Space Station visit in 2001 had been sponsored by their home governments or by private corporations.[68] Those trips include US CongressmanBill Nelson's January 1986 flight on theSpace ShuttleColumbia and Japanese television reporterToyohiro Akiyama's 1990 flight to theMir Space Station.
TheAnsari X PRIZE was intended to stimulate private investment in the development of spaceflight technologies. 21 June 2004, test flight ofSpaceShipOne, a contender for the X PRIZE, was the firsthuman spaceflight in a privately developed and operated vehicle.
On 27 September 2004, following the success of SpaceShipOne,Richard Branson, owner ofVirgin andBurt Rutan, SpaceShipOne's designer, announced thatVirgin Galactic had licensed the craft's technology, and were planning commercial space flights in 2.5 to 3 years. A fleet of five craft (SpaceShipTwo, launched from theWhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane) were to be constructed, and flights would be offered at around $200,000 each, although Branson said he planned to use this money to make flights more affordable in the long term. A test flight of SpaceShipTwo in October 2014 resulted in a crash during one of the two pilots died.[69]
In December 2004, United States PresidentGeorge W. Bush signed into law the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act.[70] The Act resolved the regulatory ambiguity surrounding private spaceflights and is designed to promote the development of the emerging U.S. commercial human space flight industry.
On 12 July 2006,Bigelow Aerospace launched theGenesis I, a subscale pathfinder of an orbital space station module.Genesis II was launched on 28 June 2007, and there are plans for additional prototypes to be launched in preparation for the production modelBA 330 spacecraft.[needs update]
In November 2009,Zero 2 Infinity, a Spanish aerospace company announced plans for a balloon-based nears space tourism vehicle called Bloon.[71] Then in 2015 it started developing ahigh-altitude balloon-basedlaunch vehicle namedbloostar to launch small satellites to orbit for customers, as well as platform for near-space tourism.[72]World View, a stratospheric balloon exploration company based in Tucson, Ariz., is similarly leveraging itsstratospheric balloon technology to launch itsremote sensing services[73] for government and commercial customers, as well as developing its own space tourism offering that would lift passengers up to 100,000 feet for a 6-8 journey.[74] Similar projects of stratospheric balloon tourism are being developed by multiple other companies around the world (Zephalto,[75] Space Perspective,[76]...), though none has yet made a high altitude crewed flight (as of Aug. 2022).
On July 11, 2021,Richard Branson andVirgin Galacticmade their first successful flight to space.[77]
On July 20, 2021,Jeff Bezos andBlue Originalso made a successful flight to space.[78]
On September 16, 2021,Crew DragonResilienceInspiration4 mission operated bySpaceX became the firstorbital spaceflight with only private citizens aboard. In September 2024, the SpaceX missionPolaris Dawn included the first private spacewalk.
TheB612 Foundation was[79] designing and building anasteroid-finding space telescope namedSentinel.[80] It would have launched in 2016.[81]
The Planetary Society, a nonprofit space research and advocacy organization, has sponsored a series of small satellites to test the feasibility ofsolar sailing. Their first such project,Cosmos 1, was launched in 2005 but failed to reach space, and was succeeded by theLightsail series, the first of which launched on 20 May 2015. A second spacecraft is expected to launch in 2016 on a more complex mission.[82]
Copenhagen Suborbitals is a crowd funded amateur crewed space programme. As of 2016[update] it has flown four home-built rockets and two mock-up space capsules.
Many have speculated on where private spaceflight may go in the near future. Numerous projects of orbital and suborbital launch systems for satellites and crewed flights exist. Some orbital crewed missions would be state-sponsored like most COTS participants. (that develop their own launch systems). Another possibility is for paid suborbital tourism on craft like those fromVirgin Galactic,Space Adventures,XCOR Aerospace,RocketShip Tours,ARCASPACE,PlanetSpace-Canadian Arrow, BritishStarchaser Industries or non-commercial likeCopenhagen Suborbitals. Additionally, suborbital spacecraft have applications for faster intercontinental package delivery and passenger flight.
SpaceX'sFalcon 9 rocket, first launched in 2010 with no passengers,[83] was designed to be subsequentlyhuman-rated. TheAtlas V launch vehicle is also a contender for human-rating.
Plans and a full-scale prototype for theSpaceX Dragon, a capsule capable of carrying up to seven passengers, were announced in March 2006,[84] andDragon version 2 flight hardware was unveiled in May 2014.[85] As of June 2024[update], both SpaceX andBoeing have received contracts from NASA to complete building, testing, and flying up to six flights of human-rated space capsules to theInternational Space Station beginning in 2017 as part of theCommercial Crew Program.[86]
In December 2010, SpaceX launched the second Falcon 9 and the first operational Dragon spacecraft. The mission was deemed fully successful, marking the first launch to space, atmospheric reentry and recovery of a capsule by a private company. SubsequentCOTS missions included increasingly complex orbital tasks, culminating in Dragon first docking to the ISS in 2012.
The British Government partnered in 2015 with theESA to promote a possibly commercialsingle-stage to orbitspaceplane concept calledSkylon.[87] This design was pioneered by the privately heldReaction Engines Limited,[88][89] a company founded byAlan Bond afterHOTOL was canceled.[90]
As of 2012, private companyNanoRacks provides commercial access to the US National Laboratory space on theInternational Space Station (ISS). Science experiments can be conducted on a variety of standard rack-sized experimental platforms, withstandard interfaces for power and data acquisition.[91]
In a presentation given 15 November 2005 to the 52nd Annual Conference of theAmerican Astronautical Society, NASA AdministratorMichael D. Griffin suggested that establishing an on-orbit propellant depot is, "Exactly the type of enterprise which should be left to industry and to the marketplace."[92] At the Space Technology and Applications International Forum in 2007, Dallas Bienhoff ofBoeing made a presentation detailing the benefits of propellant depots.[93]Shackleton Energy Company has established operational plans, an extensive teaming and industrial consortium for developing LEO Propellant Depots supplied by Lunar polar sourced water ice.[94]
Some have speculated on the profitability ofminingmetal fromasteroids. According to some estimates, a one kilometer-diameter asteroid would contain 30 million tons of nickel, 1.5 million tons of metalcobalt and 7,500tons ofplatinum; the platinum alone would have a value of more than $150 billion at 2008 terrestrial prices.[95]
Aspace elevator system is a possible launch system, currently under investigation by at least one private venture.[96] There are concerns over cost, general feasibility and some political issues. On the plus side the potential to scale the system to accommodate traffic would (in theory) be greater than some other alternatives. Some factions contend that a space elevator — if successful — would not supplant existing launch solutions but complement them.
After earlier first effort ofOTRAG, in the 1990s the projection of a significant demand forcommunications satellite launches attracted the development of a number of commercial space launch providers. The launch demand largely vanished when some of the largest satellite constellations, such as 288 satelliteTeledesic network, were never built.
In 1996,NASA selectedLockheed MartinSkunk Works to build the X-33VentureStar prototype for a single stage to orbit (SSTO)reusable launch vehicle. In 1999, the subscale X-33 prototype's composite liquid hydrogen fuel tank failed during testing. At project termination on 31 March 2001, NASA had funded US$912 million of this wedge-shaped spacecraft while Lockheed Martin financed US$357 million of it.[97] TheVentureStar was to have been a full-scale commercial space transport operated by Lockheed Martin.
In 1997,Beal Aerospace proposed the BA-2, a low-cost heavy-lift commercial launch vehicle. On 4 March 2000, the BA-2 project tested the largestliquid rocket engine built since theSaturn V.[98] In October 2000, Beal Aerospace ceased operations citing a decision byNASA and theDepartment of Defense to commit themselves to the development of the competing government-financedEELV program.[99]
In 1998,Rotary Rocket proposed the Roton, a Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) piloted Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) space transport.[100] A full scale Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle flew three times in 1999. After spending tens of millions of dollars in development the Roton failed to secure launch contracts and Rotary Rocket ceased operations in 2001.
On 28 September 2006,Jim Benson,SpaceDev founder, announced he was foundingBenson Space Company with the intention of being first to market with the safest and lowest cost suborbital personal spaceflight launches, using the vertical takeoff and horizontal landingDream Chaser vehicle based on the NASA HL-20 Personnel Launch System vehicle.[needs update]
Excalibur Almaz had plans in 2007 to launch a modernizedTKS Spacecraft (forAlmaz space station), for tourism and other uses. It was to feature the largest window ever on a spacecraft. Their equipment was never launched, and their hangar facility closed in 2016. It is to be converted into an educational exhibit.[101]
Escape Dynamics operated from 2010 to 2015, with the goal of making single stage to orbit spaceplanes.[102]
In December 2012, theGolden Spike Company announced plans to privately transport space exploration participants to the surface of theMoon and return, beginning as early as 2020, for US$750 million per passenger.[103]
XCOR Aerospace planned to initiate asuborbital commercial spaceflight service with theLynx rocketplane in 2016 or 2017 at $95,000. The first flights, to be taken by 23 passengers from theAxe Apollo Space Academy, were planned for 2015.[104][105][106]
By 2010,Bigelow Aerospace was developing theNext-Generation Commercial Space Station, a private orbital space complex. Thespace station was to have been constructed of bothSundancer andB330 expandable modules as well as a centraldocking node,propulsion,solar arrays, and attachedcrew capsules. Initial launch of space station components was planned for 2014, with portions of the station projected to be available for leased use as early as 2015.[107] As of October 2021[update], no launches have taken place.
The following companies and organizations had made initial funded launch commitments forGoogle Lunar X Prize-relatedLunar launches in 2016:
In June 2012, private Dutch non-profit,Mars One, announced a private one-way (no return) human mission toMars with the aim to establish a permanenthuman colony on Mars.[114] The plan was to send acommunication satellite and pathfinder lander to the planet by 2016 and, after several stages, land four humans on the Martian surface for permanent settlement in 2023.[115] A new set of fourastronauts would then arrive every two years.[116]
Mars One has received a variety of criticism, mostly relating to medical,[117] technical and financial feasibility. There are also unverified claims that Mars One is a scam designed to take as much money as possible from donors, including reality show contestants.[118][119] Many have criticized the project's US$6 billion budget as being too low to successfully transport humans to Mars, to the point of being delusional.[120][121] A similar project study by NASA estimated the cost of such a feat at US$100 billion, although that included transporting the astronauts back to Earth. Objections have also been raised regarding the reality TV project associated with the expedition. Given the transient nature of most reality TV ventures, many believe that as viewership declines, funding could significantly decrease, thereby harming the entire expedition. Further, contestants have reported that they were ranked based on their donations and funds raised.[118][122]
In February 2013, the US nonprofitInspiration Mars Foundation announced a plan to send a married couple on a 2018 mission to travel to Mars and back to Earth on a 501-day round trip, with no landing planned on Mars.[123] The mission would have taken advantage of an infrequently occurringfree return trajectory—a unique orbit opportunity which occurs only once every fifteen years—and will allow thespace capsule to use the smallest possible amount offuel to get it to Mars and back to Earth. The two-person American crew – a man and a woman – will fly around Mars at a distance of 100 miles (160 km) of the surface.[124] "If anything goes wrong, the spacecraft should make its own way back to Earth — but with no possibility of any shortcuts home."[125]
On September 27, 2016, at the 67th annual meeting of theInternational Astronautical Congress, Elon Musk unveiled substantial details of theInterplanetary Transport System (ITS) design for the transport vehicles—including size, construction material, number and type of engines, thrust, cargo and passenger payload capabilities, on-orbit propellant-tanker refills, representative transit times, etc.—as well as a few details of portions of the Mars-side and Earth-side infrastructure that SpaceX intends to build to support the flight vehicles. In addition, Musk championed a largersystemic vision, a vision for abottom-upemergent order of other interested parties—whether companies, individuals, or governments—to utilize the new and radically lower-cost transport infrastructure to build up asustainable human civilization on Mars, potentially, on numerous other locations around theSolar System, byinnovating andmeeting thedemand that such a growing venture would occasion.[126][127]
In July 2017, SpaceX made public plans for ITS based on a smaller launch vehicle and spacecraft. The new system architecture has "evolved quite a bit" since the November 2016 articulation of the very large "Interplanetary Transport System". A key driver of the new architecture is to make the new system useful for substantial Earth-orbit andcislunar launches so that the new system mightpay for itself, in part, through economic spaceflight activities in the near-Earth space zone.[128][129] The Super Heavy is designed to fulfill the Mars transportation goals while also launching satellites, servicing theISS, flying humans and cargo to the Moon, and enabling ballistic transport of passengers on Earth as a substitute tolong-haul airline flights.[130]
Since March 2020,SpaceX conducted several test flights of theirStarship spacecraft. The Starship is a fully reusable two-stage vehicle designed to take passengers and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. SpaceX had initially planned to have an orbital-flight in 2021. On Wednesday, May 5, 2021, the twelfth Starship prototype (SN15) made a 10 km suborbital flight and achieved soft landing. SpaceX is currently in the process of improving and understanding the Starship spacecraft.[131]
NewSpace (alsonew space) orentrepreneurial space and astropreneurship[132] have been terms applied to contemporary and increasingly competitive spaceflight.
For decades after that first launch, space flight was a government monopoly. Even when private companies started going into space in the 1990s, it was only as providers of launch services to send commercial and government satellites into orbit. Now, all that is changing as private enterprise takes over space exploration in a manner not seen since the early days of the Hudson's Bay Company.
the government's monopoly on space travel is overCite error: The named reference "wapo20160819" was defined multiple times with different content (see thehelp page).
Although some governments funded vehicle development in different ways, there were no vehicles that were not the product of some form of fairly direct governmental support. Even Ariane, the most "commercial" of launch vehicles, was commercial in operation only, not in inception and development, and could easily call on government support when things went wrong.
The aerospace giants [Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.] shared almost $500 million in equity profits from the rocket-making venture last year, when it still had a monopoly on the business of blasting the Pentagon's most important satellites into orbit. But since then, 'they've had us on a very short leash', Tory Bruno, United Launch's chief executive, said.
"On the other hand, NASA resisted the buildup of a commercial launch industry. Launching was for many years an enterprise that was run by a de facto partnership of NASA and the companies from which NASA bought launchers and launch services. NASA proposed to put an end to that enterprise in the 1980s; it sought to enthrone the shuttle as the nation's commercial, as well as government, launcher. The prospect of erecting a private sector launch industry alongside the NASA shuttle was discussed, but it did not become a reality because the shuttle was too tough a competitor for private vehicles. Only the grounding of the shuttle after the Challenger accident allowed the commercial launch industry to get started".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)The Tauri Group suggests that space startups turned a major corner in 2015, at least in the eyes of venture capital firms that are now piling money into young space companies with unprecedented gusto... he study also found that more than 50 venture capital firms invested in space companies in 2015, signaling that venture capital has warmed to a space industry it has long considered both too risky and too slow to yield returns.
The company is among several teams hoping to someday win the Google Lunar X Prize competition, a $30-million race to the moon in which a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the moon's surface and have it explore at least 1/3 of a mile. It also must transmit high definition video and images back to Earth before 2016. ... should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013
the updated version of the Mars architecture: Because it has evolved quite a bit since that last talk. ... The key thing that I figured out is how do you pay for it? if we downsize the Mars vehicle, make it capable of doing Earth-orbit activity as well as Mars activity, maybe we can pay for it by using it for Earth-orbit activity. That is one of the key elements in the new architecture. It is similar to what was shown at IAC, but a little bit smaller. Still big, but this one has a shot at being real on the economic front.
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