Space Travel Moves from Government Control to Commercial Realm
Washington - As the international crews of space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station worked together in orbit more than 300 kilometers overhead on April 15, President Obama described to an audience at the Kennedy Space Center what the "next chapter" holds for U.S. space exploration.
With only three launches left in NASA's shuttle program ( http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/ ) - Atlantis on May 14, Endeavour July 29 and Discovery September 16 - the United States and its international partners are on a new trajectory to the future that will involve more public-private partnerships.
"This is the next chapter that we will write together here at NASA," Obama said in Florida. "We will partner with industry. We will invest in cutting-edge research and technology. We will set far-reaching milestones and provide the resources to reach those milestones. And step by step, we will push the boundaries not only of where we can go, but what we can do."
In testimony April 22 before a Senate subcommittee, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden called Obama's plan "the most authentically visionary policy for real human space exploration that we have had since President Kennedy challenged NASA to send humans to the moon and return them safely back to Earth."
Under the plan, he said, "we will ensure continuous American presence in space on the [International Space Station ( http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/ )] throughout this entire decade, re-establish a robust and competitive American launch industry, launch more robotic probes into our solar system as precursors for human activity, invest in a new heavy lift [research and development] program," and build a technological foundation for sustainable exploration.
The United States also will conduct expeditions in lunar space and unprecedented human missions to near-Earth asteroids and ultimately Mars, Bolden said. What the Obama administration does not support is a proposed NASA plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020.
AN INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRISE
In 1960, American Telephone & Telegraph designed and built the first commercial spacecraft - a satellite communications system called Telstar. The system was part of a multinational agreement to develop experimental satellite communications over the Atlantic Ocean. Telstar-1, launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral in 1962, was the first privately sponsored space launch.
Today, 48 years later, two U.S. space-transportation companies - Space Exploration Technology Corp. (SpaceX) of California and Orbital Sciences of Virginia - are testing supply flights ( http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/spacexdemoflight.html ) partially funded by NASA for trips to the International Space Station over the next several years.
Other U.S. space companies include Bigelow Aerospace ( http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/ ), a Nevada start-up company that is pioneering work on expandable space station modules; the Spaceship Company ( http://www.thespaceshipcompany.com/ ), a joint venture between U.S. firm Scaled Composites ( http://www.scaled.com/ ) and Richard Branson's U.K.-based Virgin Group ( http://www.virgin.com/ ); and Space Adventures ( http://www.spaceadventures.com/ ), a space tourism company that has sent seven private astronauts to the space station.
Since 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation ( http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/ ) has licensed eight spaceports ( http://www.america.gov/st/scitech-english/2009/May/20090529163746lcnirellep0.2032587.html ) for operation, George Nield, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, told America.gov. His office licenses commercial launch operators and spaceports and issues commercial astronaut wings.
Outside the United States, Nield said, there is great interest in the business of space but fewer strictly commercial space companies. The space programs of Japan, Russia, Europe, China and India are funded by national governments. France's Arianespace ( http://www.arianespace.com/ ) is a quasi-private European space consortium founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch-services provider.
PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITIES
An exception is the entrepreneurial company Virgin Galactic ( http://www.virgingalactic.com/ ), whose $26 million SpaceShipOne flew to space three times in 2004, becoming the world's first private manned spacecraft. The company unveiled SpaceShipTwo in December 2009; the test flight period will last 18 to 24 months.
According to Galactic, it will build the first commercial vehicles during the test program. The company plans to fly 500 people in the first year of operation and 50,000 in the first 10 years. Passengers will be able to leave their seats and float in the weightlessness of space, enjoying a view of space and Earth stretching for 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) in every direction.
"Other countries that don't feel they have the capabilities to build rockets still have interests in the science and technology," Nield said. These include the 16 countries that are partners and contributors to the International Space Station ( http://www.america.gov/st/scitech-english/2009/July/20090707130116lcnirellep0.711117.html ).
"Countries that have recognized that it's beyond their current capability to build rockets or experiments still want to be part of it in some way," Nield said, "and several countries have been mentioned in the media either as sites from which vehicles are or have been launched or may launch in the future."
These include Louru in French Guiana, the current site of Arianespace launches; Kiruna in Sweden, a sounding-rocket launch site also being proposed for space tourist flights; Spaceport Scotland in Lossiemouth, also envisioned as a launch site for space tourism; Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates; and Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
"The United States is committed to space commercialization and there are plenty of opportunities for international participation," Nield said. One track is space tourism. The other is "to work with and support NASA in servicing the International Space Station and taking part in exploration activities. That will require a lot of help from governments and from industry."
Learn more about space commercialization ( http://www.america.gov/space.html ).
