Commercial use in the space industry is expanding in the Twenty-First Century and corporations are determined to invest their money in it. This private sector is expanding so, there are parties that criticize the exploration of commercial use. However, there are beneficial results if companies fund toward this industry. Big corporations such as Boeing and SpaceX have partnered up with NASA and their projects providing major outcomes and a flourish within the age of commercial space programs. The progression in the space industry will aid in the determination if this field will become a major player in commerce for the world in the future. The space industry in the past few decades has always been monopolized by the government and NASA. However,
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Though, these ideas are only on paper, corporations are confident enough to announce that they will be able to produce results in a couple of years. A person that can be identified is George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic. He is discussed in Nancy Trejo’s article, “Virgin Galactic is building in Mojave, Calif., a reusable vehicle that can complete a suborbital flight, meaning it will fly above the planet's surface, then return to the atmosphere without hitting orbit” (qtd. in Trejo). From Pelton’s article, the project itself has been backed up by five hundred people that have committed at least two hundred thousand dollars to fly on Virgin Galactic’s ship. These types of proposal gives a promising direction towards space tourism. However, there are main problems that are to be discussed about space tourism. The issue to be stated is safety and the space flight has to work. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX states in Achenbach’s article, “The thing with the rocket is, the passing grade is 100 percent. You can't issue a recall or do a patch” (Achenbach). So this guarantees that private companies are required to go through vigorous testing with their space crafts in order to launch it into orbit. However, this delays the time to be able to send it off into space. Not only will that be a problem, cost will rise up the more resources are poured into testing the space craft. Another source of income private companies are focusing on is hypersonic travel with their space planes. From Pelton’s article, these space planes have garnered much interest with the public and are hoping to use this type of technology to deliver cargo from one country to another as little as an hour. The space planes can also be used as an alternative for low-orbit travel instead of regular air flight. Issues have been brought up about the sonic boom being major
Though, these ideas are only on paper, corporations are confident enough to announce that they will be able to produce results in a couple of years. A person that can be identified is George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic. He is discussed in Nancy Trejo’s article, “Virgin Galactic is building in Mojave, Calif., a reusable vehicle that can complete a suborbital flight, meaning it will fly above the planet's surface, then return to the atmosphere without hitting orbit” (qtd. in Trejo). From Pelton’s article, the project itself has been backed up by five hundred people that have committed at least two hundred thousand dollars to fly on Virgin Galactic’s ship. These types of proposal gives a promising direction towards space tourism. However, there are main problems that are to be discussed about space tourism. The issue to be stated is safety and the space flight has to work. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX states in Achenbach’s article, “The thing with the rocket is, the passing grade is 100 percent. You can't issue a recall or do a patch” (Achenbach). So this guarantees that private companies are required to go through vigorous testing with their space crafts in order to launch it into orbit. However, this delays the time to be able to send it off into space. Not only will that be a problem, cost will rise up the more resources are poured into testing the space craft. Another source of income private companies are focusing on is hypersonic travel with their space planes. From Pelton’s article, these space planes have garnered much interest with the public and are hoping to use this type of technology to deliver cargo from one country to another as little as an hour. The space planes can also be used as an alternative for low-orbit travel instead of regular air flight. Issues have been brought up about the sonic boom being major