America’s Rocket Renaissance

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

During recent public talks, Scaled Composites Founder Burt Rutan has bemoaned the lack of recent rocket development in the United States. After the initial burst of creativity in the 1950’s and 1960’s, decades went by with very few new rockets being developed. He has also pointed to Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipTwo, SpaceX’s Dragon and Stratolaunch Systems air-launch project (which he worked on for 20 years) as the only serious developments in the field at present.

My first thought was: Burt’s wrong. There’s a lot more going on than just that. Including developments just down the flight line in Mojave that he somehow fails to mention. And my second thought was: well, just how wrong is Burt, exactly?

A lot, it turns out.

Going through the voluminous Parabolic Arc archives, I discovered that we’re in the midst of a renaissance in rocketry and spacecraft development in the United States. The list of project under active development or already flying includes heavy-lift rockets, deep-space exploration craft, orbital taxis, private space stations, suborbital tourism and research vehicles, and dedicated nano-sat launchers.

Not all of these programs will succeed, of course, but if enough of them do, then the U.S. will once again have a vibrant and competitive launch industry. And the nation will have multiple options for sending humans to space, where there will be multiple destinations for them to visit.

The tables below show all the new projects that are either in active development or have reached flight in recent years.  If I’ve missed any, please let me know and I’ll add them to the tables.

UPDATES: Revised on Jan. 4 to include the X-37A spacecraft (Boeing/U.S. Air Force) and the P-18D suborbital launch vehicle (Garvey Spaceflight Corporation). Also updated information on the GOLauncher 1 (suborbital) and GOLauncher 2 (orbital) launch vehicles. Thanks to readers for the recommendations and additional information.

Revised on Jan. 5 to include commercial deep space programs now being planned.

Revised on Jan. 6 to include SpaceX Grasshopper.

HUMAN SPACECRAFT — ORBITAL AND BEYOND

NEW HUMAN SPACECRAFT
	Spacecraft & Booster	Builder(s) & Supporting Agency	Passengers/ Occupants	First Crewed Flight
	CST-100 – Atlas V	Boeing & ULA/NASA	7	2015 or 2016
	Dragon – Falcon 9	SpaceX/NASA	7	2015
	Dream Chaser – Atlas V	Sierra Nevada Corporation & ULA/NASA	7	2016
	Orion – Space Launch System	Lockheed Martin, Boeing & ATK/NASA	4	2021
	Orbital Vehicle — Atlas V (Later Blue Origin Reusable Rocket)	Blue Origin & ULA/NASA	7	Unknown
	BA330 Space Station	Bigelow Aerospace (with Boeing and SpaceX crew partnerships)	6	2016 or 2017

HUMAN SUBORBITAL

NEW HUMAN SUBORBITAL SPACECRAFT
	Spacecraft	Builder	Passengers & Crew	First Crewed Flight
	SpaceShipTwo	Scaled Composites	8	2013
	Lynx	XCOR Aerospace	2	2013
	Hyperion	Armadillo Aerospace & Space Adventures	2	Unknown
	New Shepard	Blue Origin	4	Unknown

ORBITAL SPACECRAFT — ROBOTIC

NEW ROBOTIC SPACECRAFT
	Spacecraft & Booster	Builder & Supporting Agency	Payload to ISS	First Flight
	Dragon – Falcon 9	SpaceX/NASA	6,000 kg (13,228 lbs) up-mass; 3,000 kg (6,614 lbs) down-mass	2010
	Cygnus – Antares	Orbital Sciences Corporation/NASA	2,000 kg Standard 2,700 kg Enhanced	2013
	X-37B – Atlas V	Boeing & ULA/U.S. Air Force	Unknown	2010

LAUNCH VEHICLES

NEW LAUNCH VEHICLES — ORBITAL
	Booster	Builder(s) & Supporting Agency	Payload to LEO or SSO	Payload to GTO	First Flight(s)
Heavy Lift
	Space Launch System	Lockheed Martin, Boeing & ATK/NASA	70 MT & 130 MT		2017/2021
	Falcon Heavy	SpaceX	53 MT	12 MT (26,460 lbs.)	2013 or 2014
Medium Lift
	Falcon 9	SpaceX/NASA	13,150 kg (29,000 lbs.)	4,850 kg (10,692 lbs.)	2010
	Antares	Orbital Sciences Corporation/ NASA	5,000 kg (11,000 lbs.)		2013
	Stratolaunch	Scaled Composites, Dynetics & Orbital Sciences Corp.	6,100 kg (13,500 lbs.)		2016
	Athena Ic, IIc	ATK & Lockheed Martin	up to 1,712 kg (3,775 lbs.)		Unknown
Small, Nano and Micro Satellite Launchers
	Super Strypi (a.k.a., SPARK)	Aerojet, Sandia National Laboratories & University of Hawaii/DOD Office of Operationally Responsive Space	250 kg (550 lbs.)	N/A	2013
	LauncherOne	Virgin Galactic	225 kg (500 lbs.)	N/A	2016
	ALASA	Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Virgin Galactic, Northrop Grumman, Ventions LLC & Space Information Laboratories LLC/DARPA	45.4 kg 100 lbs.)	N/A	Unknown
	SWORDS	U.S. Army	25 kg (55 lbs.)	N/A	2013
	GOLauncher 2	Generation Orbit Launch Services & Space Propulsion Group	5 to 30 kg (11 to 66 lbs.)	N/A	2018
	Minimum Cost Launch System	Whittinghill Aerospace	Nanosats	N/A	Unknown
	Lynx	XCOR Aerospace	Microsats	N/A	2015 or 2016

SUBORBITAL LAUNCH VEHICLES

SUBORBITAL LAUNCH VEHICLES — NO CREW
	Booster	Builder(s)	Payloads	First Flight(s)
	STIG-A, STIG-B, STIG-III, STIG-V, STIG-VII	Armadillo Aerospace	Various	Various
	Xombie, Xogdor	Masten Space Systems	Various	Various
	P-18D	Garvey Spacecraft Corporation	CubeSats, Nanosats	2011
	Minimum Cost Launch Vehicle	Whittinghill Aerospace	Various	Unknown
	GOLauncher 1	Generation Orbit Launch Services & Space Propulsion Group	Up to 100 kg (220 lbs.)	2015
	Grasshopper	SpaceX	Test Vehicle	2012

BEYOND EARTH ORBIT

Commercial Lunar and Deep Space Programs
	Companies	Goal	Technology	Schedule
	Astrobotic, Team FREDNET, Team Jurban, Moon Express, Omega Envoy, Penn State Lunar Lion Team, Team Phoenicia, Team Stellar	Win $30 Million Google Lunar X Prize	Lunar landers and rovers	Prize expires Dec. 31, 2015
	Planetary Resources	Asteroid mining	Arkyd-100, Arkyd-200, Arkyd-300	2013 or 2014 (first launches)
	Space Adventures & Energia	Space tourism flight around the moon	Modified Soyuz transport	NLT January 2017
	Golden Spike Company	Human landings on moon	Lunar transportation architecture	2020