The Private Commercial Spaceflight Era Has Arrived
History may well recognize July, 2021 as the dawn of the private commercial spaceflight industry as two companies launched manned suborbital flights with entirely private crews.
Of course, space tourism has been around for 20 years. In 2001, Dennis Tito paid a reported 20 million dollars for a seat on a Soyuz spacecraft going to the International Space Station. Tito spent seven days aboard the orbiting outpost before returning to Earth.
Fast-forward 20 years, and Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin launched sub-orbital flights to space within a nine-day timespan with fully private crews. Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson was aboard VSS Unity when it reached an altitude of about 55 miles on July 11, while Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos was one of four people on board a human-rated capsule that was carried to an altitude of 66 miles by a New Shepard reusable booster.
John Spencer is the founder of the Space Tourism Society. He says these flights are a great demonstration of private enterprise totally engaging in the space industry with a focus on the customer experience.
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Spencer: “The difference between these flights and the original space tourism flights 20 years ago is that those original flights went to the International Space Station where the guests spent at least a week on board the International Space Station. So there’s a remarkable difference between a space flight to the space station and a suborbital flight. But eventually these suborbital flights will grow into orbital flights as well.”
Since Tito’s visit to the ISS, seven private citizens flew to the station through 2009, with one visiting twice.
Spencer: But this is an evolution of the space experience/space tourism industry.”
The Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin
systems represent very different methods of achieving sub-orbital flight. Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity is carried aloft by a purpose-built aircraft called White Knight Two. The spacecraft, which somewhat resembles a traditional airplane, is released at altitude before the rocket engines are lit … a "horizontal launch" as it's called in the industry. It flies and lands like an airplane. New Shepard, by contrast, is a more traditional rocket design. The rocket launches vertically, carries its payload to altitude, and separates. The payload, which can include a human-rated spacecraft, returns to Earth under three parachutes and lands on the ground, while the booster returns to its launch site and lands much like a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster. Both the Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin systems are completely reusable.
The path to human spaceflight has been a long one for both companies. Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 specifically for the purpose of flying tourists into space, and later added satellite launches to its catalog. At the time, the company said they would be flying tourists into space in 2010. But the program suffered multiple setbacks, punctuated by the October 2014 in-flight breakup of VSS Enterprise. The accident resulted in the fatal injury of co-pilot Michael Alsbury. Pilot Peter Siebold was seriously injured.
The Virgin group spun off its satellite launch business into a separate company called Virgin Orbit in 2017.
Blue Origin was created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2000 and conducted its first test flight in 2015. The company has several rocket engines under development, including the BE-4 that is intended to power the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket. The BE-4 is also currently slated to be the primary engine for the New Glenn rocket, which is Blue Origin's planned orbital booster. An even larger New Armstrong booster has also been teased, but no details about that rocket have been released by the company
So, the two manned spaceflights this month represent the culmination of decades of research and development by multiple companies to achieve a goal of carrying private citizens into space. SpaceX is in the mix as well. The Inspiration4 mission, planned for later this year, hopes to launch four private citizens into orbit aboard a Dragon spacecraft carried by a Falcon 9 rocket. The crew is currently working through an extensive astronaut training program. The three-day inspiration4 mission will not be just a tourism flight. The company says the crew is working closely with SpaceX and multiple organizations to identify scientific research opportunities they can support while in orbit.
SpaceX has also signed an agreement with Axiom Space to launch three private missions to the International Space Station beginning not later than early 2022. SpaceX also plans to fly a commercial mission to the Moon and back with nine people on board, including Japanese entrepreneur Yusaka Maezawa, who has purchased all the seats, on one of the company’s Starship spacecraft. That trip is being operated by SpaceToday incorporated.