Commercial Human Space Systems Overview Aerospace Engineering © 2011 Project Lead The Way, Inc.

Overview Introduction History of Commercial Human Spaceflight Suborbital Flight Orbital Flight

Introduction Original manned spaceflight started in early 1960s Government was the only organization going into space Recent government budget changes and technological innovations provided an environment for private industry to enter space Within last few years this has become a reality Trend is advancing and evolving as a legitimate industry and method of transportation

History of Commercial Human Spaceflight Call to action was initiated by Dr. Peter Diamondis through the formation of the X-Prize Foundation in 1999 X-Prize sparked development with $10M prize Over 20 teams competed Scaled Composites in Mojave, CA demonstrated successful flight test on June 21, 2004 Official record set and Ansari X-Prize awarded on October 4, 2004

Timeline 1961 1969 1982 1999 2004 2012 + 4/1961 to 1999 Prior manned space by governments only 1961 - First manned spaceflight 1969 - Man walks on moon 1982 - First space shuttle 1999 to 10/2004 Start of Commercial spaceflight development 1999 - Kickoff of Ansari X-Prize 2001 - Scaled team enters competition 6/2004 - First commercial manned spaceflight 10/2004 - SS1 wins X-Prize, formation of Virgin Galactic 2004 to beyond Implementation of Commercial spaceflight 2005 - Engineering development of SS2 starts 7/2008 - First mothership for Virgin Galactic delivered

Presentation Name Course Name Unit # – Lesson #.# – Lesson Name Suborbital Flight Suborbital spaceflight achieves flights to altitudes qualifying as space but do not achieve or maintain orbit Typically short-duration flight Typically take-off and land at same location Cannot reach ISS ISS is the ancroynm for International Space Station.

SpaceShip One First spacecraft to successfully achieve suborbital manned spaceflight as a private company (no government funding or support)

SpaceShip One Launch Mothership “White Knight” lifts spacecraft to 50,000 feet – above 80%+ of atmosphere

Major Contributors Dr. Peter Diamondis – XPRIZE Foundation Scaled Composites LLC Burt Rutan – President and chief Engineer at Scaled Composites Sir Richard Branson – Founder of Virgin Group in UK, became first entrepreneur to take this new technology to a commercial application with launch of Virgin Galactic

Invention Evolution Initial development was for glider flight test, with concurrent control and propulsion system certification SpaceShip 1 configuration used for X-Prize designed to carry 3 passengers Next version, SpaceShip 2, carries six passengers Continuing to refine engines and other systems development to allow longer sub-orbital flights

Virgin Galactic Initial test flights in 2011-2012 First commercial flight planned for 2013 Operates from New Mexico

Shuttle Replacement Retirement of shuttle program in 2011 created need for new spacecraft to support ISS

Commercial Human Orbital Flight Providers Russians currently selling seats onboard Soyuz $20M per person 10 days on ISS

SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft SpaceX developing Dragon spacecraft

Boeing – Orion Spacecraft Boeing repurposing Orion capsule development for commercial variant

Bigelow Aerospace – Genesis Hotel Bigelow Aerospace developing Orbital Hotel facility

Summary Next 20 years will bring major changes as commercial organizations work to access space Major goal is to reduce cost for access to space while improving safety and reliability Similar situation to what commercial airline industry faced in 1930s Significant number of jobs in aerospace will be provided by these companies

References Boeing (2011). Retrieved from www.boeing.com Bigelow Aerospace, LLC (2011). Station development. Retrieved from www.bigelowaerospace.com Scaled Composites, LLC (2011). About us. Retrieved from www.scaled.com SpaceX Exploration Technologies (2011). Company. Retrieved from www.spacex.com Virgin Galactic (2011). Company. Retrieved from www.virgingalactic.com