Private Spaceflight Industry

Although nothing about spaceflight inherently demands government involvement, in the first generations of successful spaceflight only national governments had the resources necessary to pursue it; even the first commercial satellites were launched with government-owned rockets. Even now, more than 50 years after the launch of Sputnik, the only profitable commercial use of space is in satellites (and manufacturing and other contracting on behalf of government clients). But the long-term success and safety of reusable spacecraft like NASA's space shuttle, combined with the reduced cost of computing power and other advanced technology, has led to a still-developing private spaceflight industry.

Sir Richard Branson (left) of Virgin Galactic and pilot Steve Fossett with a test aircraft at Kennedy Space Center in 2006.

Europe led the way in spaceflight deregulation, creating Arianespace in 1980 as a commercial space transport agency. American deregulation began in 1984 with the Commercial Space Launch Act, which legalized the private operation of expendable launch systems. But throughout the 20th century, private spaceflight remained unmanned—expendable rockets used to launch satellites into space, but no reusable or passenger flights. That has lately begun to change.

Toward the end of the century, the Russian space program began taking private citizens—paying tourists—into space as a way to offset their operating expenses; the trips were arranged by various private corporations, beginning with MirCorp. Currently the Virginia-based company Space Adventures arranges trips on Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station for fees in the millions of dollars.

The first privately funded spacecraft was launched in 2004: SpaceShipOne was a spaceplane (a concept often proposed within the aerospace industry but never explored in the public sector due to the popularity of the shuttle), launched to suborbital altitudes. It was developed by Mojave Aerospace, a joint venture between Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and [Page 1305]the aviation company Scaled Composites. Months later, Virgin signed a deal with Mojave to develop the spacecraft for Virgin Galactic, the first passenger space travel company. While ventures like MirCorp charged fees in the neighborhood of $20 million, Virgins tickets sell for only one percent of that—with prices expected to drop after the company recoups expenses. The SpaceShipTwo is being designed for this purpose, with seats for two pilots and six passengers, for flights that will include six minutes of weightlessness.

Though Virgin will likely be the first major venture to begin flights, it is not alone in the field. There are now dozens of companies developing suborbital or orbital commercial flights, while Space Adventures now offers space walks on its International Space Station trips.