Commercial Space Industry

In the 1960s, Jeff Bezo, Amazon and Blue Origin CEO, began intriguing the public with Blue Origin’s idea to launch private citizens 62 miles above the Earth in four-minute increments (Blum, 2015). Bezo wanted to transform the idea of a fantasy trip to space to an accessible reality for everyone. Like Blue Origin, Pan Am took reservations (but failed to deliver) for trips to the moon in 1969, further proving and reiterating the public’s interest in space travel. In November of 2015, Blue Origin landed its first reusable rocket in space (Blum, 2015). Clearly space tourism has developed over the years, but it has also experienced its fair share of setbacks along the way.

            In 1984 the first non-governmental employed astronaut, Charles D. Walker, explored space, flying three times between 1984 and 1985. Space Adventures, founded in 1998, has allowed private civilians to travel beyond the stratosphere, spending close to three months in space while traveling over 36 million miles. Space Adventures was charging anywhere between twenty and forty million dollars for the ability to explore space (Blum, 2015).

            Despite the many successes of space travel, there have also been detrimental setbacks. On January 28^th, 1986 the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its mission, unfortunately killing all seven members on board, to include the schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Following the shuttle disintegration as a result of an O-ring seal failure, NASA cancelled all of its Space Flight Participant Programs at that time (Blum, 2015). In October of 2014, Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two fell to Earth after an attempt to explore space. The crash created hurdles and public pessimism toward the idea of exploration and tourism of space, including mixed feelings from the typically optimistic Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson. The crash killed one pilot and severely injured another, significantly impacting the world’s perception on space travel (Blum, 2015).

            A company making waves in this tourism industry is SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. Two weeks ago, SpaceX made history by launching the world’s fourth electric car into space (Pearlman, 2018). As we’ve learned, space tourism and exploration is constantly evolving. Just yesterday SpaceX was at it again, successfully launching its Falcon 9 rocket. With an attempt to save money and lower the cost of sending objects into space such as people, SpaceX operates with the idea of rocket reusability to then utilize that same part for other future missions. After they launched Falcon 9, they attempted to catch the rocket’s nose cone as it fell to the Earth’s surface traveling eight times the speed of sound, but were unsuccessful (NPR, 2018).

            In January of 1984, President Ronald Reagan wanted to stimulate interest in the commercial space industry by removing all the regulation barriers associated. At that time, space industries had to go through as many as 17 approving agencies prior to mission approval, so it was decided to designate the Department of Transportation as the sole approving authority for space exploration missions. Congress created the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 in October of that year, which addressed licensing and regulation, access of private launch companies to government facilities, and liability insurance requirements (FAA, 2017). In 1986, US policy changed after the Space Shuttle Challenger accident. Following the catastrophe, President Reagan reversed all policies and issued a NSDD 254 which limited NASA’s role in providing commercial launches to only those satellites that involved unusual foreign policy considerations or unique shuttle capabilities (FAA, 2017).

            Safety and cost still plays an integral role in the development and success of tourism in space. Since the establishment of the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, not only has it been amended twice, but two laws were incorporated by President Bill Clinton: Commercial Space Act of 1998 and Commercial Space Transportation Competitiveness Act in 2000. The alternative to establishing a safe commercial space operation leaves room for error and fatalities. I feel like the exploration of space should be taken seriously with the utmost caution on all parties involved to ensure a successful mission, regardless of whether or not there’s a physical pilot operating the vehicle. In my opinion, the rules could always be more restrictive because we’re dealing with people’s lives.

            I think space tourism is absolutely feasible, and can consistently exist for more than a one-time bucket list type of adventure in as early as ten years. I do, however, think only the wealthiest of the wealthy will be able to partake in the phenomena of space travel. Even with rocket reusability in effect, it is still far too expensive ($20M+) for what I will call “normal” people to utilize as a means of transportation. The knowledge and technology is there to launch people into space, but more training, safety specifications, money, regulations, and reliability needs to exist/be established before we can have a fully functioning system.

            To work in the space tourism industry, a pilot must possess and carry an FAA pilot certificate with an instrument rating. In addition, pilots with extensive emergency training and crew coordination, like that of a military fighter pilot or commercial airline pilot are ideal (Goehlich, 2013).  Those skills, in addition to a more in-depth supersonic and suborbital training will prepare a space tourism industry pilot. According to Embry Riddle, generally the most qualified space tourism pilots are prior single engine pilots and test pilots (graph featured below) from their experience (Goehlich, 2013). Virgin Galactic has been recruiting pilots from the commercial airliners who typically have experience in multiple aircraft with more than three thousand flight hours (Goehlich, 2013). 

References

Blum, S. (2015, November 25). The Space Tourism Timeline. Retrieved from https://www.inverse.com                         /article/8528-the-space-tourism-timeline

Federal Aviation Administration (2017). Origins of The Commercial Space Industry. Retrieved from                                https://www.faa.gov/about/history/milestones/media/Commercial_Space_Industry.pdf

Goehlich, R. A., Anderson, J. K., Harrold, N. N., Bemis, J. A., Nettleingham, M. T., Cobin, J. M.,          Zimmerman, B. R., Avni, B. L., Gonyea, M. D., & Ilchena, N. Y. (2013). Pilots For Space Tourism. Retrieved            from https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.             cgi?                      article%3D1001 %26context%3Dww-graduate-studies&source=gmail&ust=1519530418602000                                    &usg=AFQjCNG4XxFTKl_ uqyEf5LNCqCoUOSq_9w

National Public Radio, Inc. (2018, February 22). SpaceX Completes Successful Launch, Narrowly Misses                     Catching $6 Million Nose Cone. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02                /22/587933235/spacex-completes-successful-launch-narrowly-misses-catching-6-million-nose-cone

Pearlman, R. (2018, February 6). SpaceX’s First Falcon Heavy Rocket to Launch 4^th Electric Car to Leave                     Earth. Retrieved from https://www.space.com/g00/39606-spacex-falcon-heavy-fourth-car-           space.html?i10c.encReferrer=&i10c.ua=1