Orbital Commercial Space is Open for Business

SpaceX has accomplished what many have said was impossible. They—a commercial company—have launched two humans successfully to orbit on the Crew Dragon (Dragon 2). Not only to orbit, but they have sent them to the International Space Station on May 30th, 2020. Some have said how important this accomplishment is for the United States to get back launching Americans from American soil. I agree; that's true. Nationalism aside, there is a much much deeper and more important milestone this accomplishment marks that few are saying, and it has to do with our future from here on out. It marks the beginning of commercial human operations. What does that mean? It means we are no longer dependant on government money to get humans to space. SpaceX will open the market to allow citizens and anyone to go to space.

An actor has a contract to go to the ISS on SpaceX Dragon to shoot a movie. Tom Cruise is reportedly going to ride on Crew Dragon to the space station in the near future (Verge article). This was announced almost a month before the launch. This is how Earth-shattering this launch is. It's already sparking space tourism.

A billionaire wants to go to space and take artists around the moon. He has a contract with SpaceX. The Dear Moon project by entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa hired SpaceX to take him and artists on a journey around the moon on Starship. It's the most ambitious space tourism feat yet. The Crew Dragon launch validates SpaceX's ability to launch humans into space and thus to launch them on the yet to be developed Starship as well.

I heard on the webcast of the launch that SpaceX plans on sending making available twice a year on Crew Dragon a year to the ISS. This article from the Verge states that SpaceX made an agreement with Space Adventures to have four private citizens in the next year or so. 

Now, the future can open up. Commercial Space Stations project entrepreneurs can make real plans because they have a way to get people to their stations. Axiom Space, Bigelow Aerospace, and the Gateway Foundation have been surely watching eagerly the Crew Dragon launch.

Low Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and deep space are all potential destinations for commercial human missions and colonies. The successful launch of Crew Dragon is amazing and is also the key to an open and profitable space future. Ad Astra.

Virgin Orbit First Launch Attempt

Virgin Orbit attempted its first rocket launch on May 25th, 2020. It experienced an anomaly shortly after the Boeing 747, Cosmic Girl, released the rocket, LauncherOne, and the rocket ignited. So far they haven't given any details as to what when wrong.

I followed their live Twitter feed as they attempted this launch. My impression is that this is a very complicated procedure, more so than a regular rocket launch. The rocket is powered by liquid fuel which is a first of its kind, air-launched rocket. The Pegasus of Northrup Grumman has solid rocket motors. The other thing Virgin Orbit is doing differently is that they are pitching the nose of Cosmic Girl up dramatically to release the rocket. This is to give the rocket a better angle than horizontal since it doesn't have a main wing-like Pegasus does. So, there's lots of variable and lots of things that can go wrong with LauncherOne.

Yeah, it was disappointing to hear that the rocket failed. It was a test flight, and there was no customer payload to lose. Still, I rooted for these guys, and they are doing something pretty extraordinary.

Virgin Orbit is focused on launching cube sats and compete with Rocket Lab.  Air launch does have a couple of advantages over regular land launches. It allows for launches form any airport. The rocket uses less fuel since it launches at altitude. Virgin Orbit aims to keep the launch prices for the customer significantly lower than the customers of the Pegasus system. 

UPDATE: According to Virgin Orbit post dated May 25th, the mission was a success, and data was collected to make modifications for the next flight. This kind of approach is reminiscent of the Russian way of development, which is to use actual tests to figure out the next step of development. It is a practical approach and can be more cost-effective than buying or making specialized test equipment just to develop one rocket. At least, that's opinions that I've heard over the years. I don't know how true that is. I just have to trust what they're doing and hope for the best. Any of these companies could always go the way of XCOR. Commercial space is a big gamble, but Sir Richard Branson is very resourceful, and his team of engineers and professionals seem really capable.

Posting Again

I want to start posting here again. I think the time is right. I initially stopped posting in 2017 because a lot of YouTubers came on and started to inform the public on commercial space which was my purpose. So, at that time I didn't see much point continuing. Also, a lot of social media groups came on and fans started to gather. People started to become interested in Space and not only space but in more science, technology, math, and engineering. This was a good thing and I applauded it. I heard of people, both men and women going into science and engineering. That was awesome. I hope the best for them.

Years on, now we have more science detractors. We have a pandemic. We have more commercial space companies. SpaceX is booming. Virgin Group has grown and is still working on its projects. Blue Origin has flown its suborbital craft and is working on its orbital rocket. Statolaunch has been bought out. Xcor went under. Dreamchaser project still holds on to the dream, and its parent company, Sierra Nevada, still gets contracts, very healthy. Bigelow waits. Then Axiom comes up with a commercial space station contract with NASA. It's not called that but it does the job. There is so much to talk about. More YouTubers are on talking about space projects and the field seems endless. I think it's finally happening. Commercial space is making a foothold and is here to stay. So, it can only get bigger. And I can only give my two cents on what all this means and how all this is going down.