Space Companies Update Plans for Doing Space Things
Space Adventures vehicle for circumlunar flights. (Credit: Space Adventures)
Michael Belfiore has a piece in the MIT Technology Review about a May 1 event at the Explorers Club in New York where 13 commercial space companies showed off their plans. Several key players had updated schedules which anyone paying the slightest bit of attention will know to take with 1.7 metric tons of salt:
- Virgin Galactic’s head of Astronaut Relations Lauren De Niro Pipher predicted that Richard Branson and his children would fly to space aboard SpaceShipTwo in November or December. Note, this was prior to the announcement of a change in the ship’s engine, which officials insist won’t have a major impact on the schedule.
- XCOR hopes to fly the Lynx Mark I before the end of the year. The ship is now being assembled in Mojave, Calif.
- Blue Origin said it would begin test flights of its first full-scale spacecraft within a year.
- Space Adventures says it has signed up two unidentified customers willing to spend $150 million to fly a modified Soyuz spacecraft around the moon. The flight is set to launch in 2017 or 2018.
- Penn State Lunar Lion plans to send a coffee-table sized spacecraft to land on the moon in an effort to win the Google Lunar X Prize.
- Planetary Resources discussed plans to launch its first Arkyd spacecraft from the International Space Station by the end of this year.
- World View Enterprises said the company would launch a small test vehicle of its high-altitude manned capsule in about a month, which would be right about now.
24 responses to “Space Companies Update Plans for Doing Space Things”
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I wonder if space adventure could get say 4 ppl to take a ba-330, combined with a dragon and a tug to go around the moon? 75 million each and better accommodations.
So, how did you arrive at that price, also with hardware that isn’t quite there?
Though you have to go back to 1968 or so, the Russians at least have some experience in sending unmanned prototypes of a manned vehicle (Zond) around the Moon several times…
NASA also has experience in sending things around the moon.
What is your point?
I picked 300 million, because 150M / 2 ppl is 75 M.
So, 4 ppl x 75 is 300M.
That is why I ASK if it is possible.
Considering that SpaceX is saying that they can launch 7 ppl for 120-150M with EELV (disposable launcher and capsule), I would suspect that they could drop it to 70-100M with F9R, combined with re-usable capsule.
And as to tug, BA, I would not be surprised to see these prices come down quickly as well.
But most importantly, I would think that both SpaceX and Bigelow would love to pick up sending ppl around the moon for say 75 M each, and sending 4-6 ppl at a time.
Elon and Shotwell have, unfortunately, often talked of their lack of interest in both the moon and in space tourism.
Too bad though, as I think these are the most exciting near term arenas.
Fortunately, both have also talked about being open to working with a customer. If someone’s willing to pay them and, unlike say Stratolaunch, it doesn’t take them too far away from their main plans, I think they’d be happy to both serve their customer and get another feather in their collective cap. And, like you said, Elon mentioned a possible lunar proof of concept flight.
Hopefully!
I think what they have said is that the moon is NOT their primary focus. However, I doubt that spaceX will turn down the opportunity to send up multiple FH for the moon, and even more so, doubt that they will not want to use dragon there .
I just wonder if dragon has the fuel to land and take off from the moon.
“NASA also has experience in sending things around the moon.
What is your point?”
I’m sorry, were we discussing a NASA or a Russian project? The circumlunar experience of the latter is what’s relevant here.
“I picked 300 million, because 150M / 2 ppl is 75 M.
So, 4 ppl x 75 is 300M.
That is why I ASK if it is possible.”
Thank you for that…clarification.
I think you’re severily underestimating the delta-V necessary for the trans-lunar injection. Look how big the tanks are at the tug attached to the Soyuz in the lead picture for this article (you have to discard the shroud of Blok-DM mentally).
Why do you say that?
I have been suggesting for quite sometime that we need some tugs from the private space world.
I would think that if Space Adventure could get the 4-6 ppl to do this, that all of the equipment would come together quickly.
Lost in space, time and money.
I was looking for an ace Javascript coder to build a simple web page with countdown clocks for all these things happening. No whiz kid took the job, as it turns out the math involved is harder than bistromathics
Haha, I seriously cracked up over that bistromathics comment 😀
This also requires some new, though not particularly complicated hardware,
*One* man could be sent around the Moon on a single Proton launch (they almost did it in the late 60’s), but this is more involved and requires two launches and a LEO docking.
I’m not sure which of these I’m most excited for…so many bold plans! Probably XCOR. or Blue Origin, since any news from that company is a rare treat.
Dude, I looked at the picture and thought “yeah, may be, may be not”. But it was the mention of Blue Origin that caught my eye also. “Flight tests”, exciting, “full scale spacecraft”, very exciting, “within a year”, I’ve been let down before on this sort of blind date.
LOL.
Yeah, space is very much a blind date. I like that description.
Yep, it usually gets down to funding. Funding affects everything else although occassionally, such as Orion and VG, the wrong decision at the start impacts regardless of funding.
Cheers.
“Flight tests” is very exciting. I wonder what they’ll put it on top of since they won’t have a self-built launcher by then. They had been planning initial flight on Atlas V, like CST-100.
I immediately assumed that it would be tests of their sub-orbital system using their reusable first stage in some form or other with or without the actual biconic “spacecraft”. Anyway, have ULA got any Atlas V flights going spare – I hear they might be short of engines.
I generally don’t get enthused about suborbital (“been there, done that” – 50 years ago) but XCOR’s plan to fly from a runway to 100 km and fly back without a carrier aircraft is exciting. Likewise, Blue Origin is intruiging because they are doing things quietly – as opposed to our favorite British showman.
I know it was once routine for us, but the Russians have never been beyond LEO. I would think an Apollo 8-style mission would be in order before they put a couple of rich dudes in a Soyuz with a cosmonaut for a trip around the Moon.
EM has mentioned the possibility (in passing) of sending a flight around the Moon simply to demonstrate capability. Not sure what it would take for him to seriously consider this proposal.
They may have it pencilled in on their roadmap for Mars.
Cheers.
There’s a lot about most of these plans that induces skepticism. I think that is the nature of New Space plus the fact that we are now privy to every contract and press release. Much will be announced with a great deal of hoopla but less will actually be accomplished. Before the internet, we might hear a little about a new spacecraft but we waited until we saw it fly to get excited about it.
Free return or not, I would hope that the Russians would at least send a crew of their own around the Moon before allowing Space Adventures to have one (space adventure) of their own with Russian equipment.
The “terminally ill billionaire” market segment is intensly coveted in this industry.
Only XCOR sounds credible. The rest is mere humbug… probably.