7 Expert Answers for How Big Business Will Spend Cash in Space
Joe Pappalardo
Popular Mechanics

Of all the tons of fuel that drives modern space flight, cash is the most critical. That was the stark reality brought front and center on Wednesday at the first-ever Space Business Forum in New York, where leading rocket scientists, military officers and even hedge-fund managers crunched the numbers to illuminate the future of the space industry. From the European influence on suborbital tourism to why the Air Force doesn’t trust private rockets, and from the increasingly outsourced business model at NASA to a place for that other “green” movement, here’s a news analysis of where the power lies.

Challenges Ahead for New Space Investors
Tariq Malik
Space.com

“New startups hoping to make their mark on the space industry still face high entry barriers just to cover their initial costs, investors said Wednesday.

“The high cost and risks associated with new commercial ventures, as well as the bureaucratic government hoops they have to jump through, provide substantial barriers for nascent companies aiming for space, experts said during the 2008 Space Business Forum here presented by the Space Foundation, a non-profit advocacy organization.”

XCOR PRESS RELEASE

Los Angeles, March 26, 2008 – A small California aerospace company today unveiled a new suborbital spaceship that will provide affordable front-seat rides to the edge of space for the millions of people who want to buy a ticket.

The company, XCOR Aerospace, of Mojave, CA, announced that its two-seat Lynx suborbital spaceship will carry people or payloads to where they will experience weightlessness and see the stars above and the Earth and its atmosphere below. This will launch XCOR into the emerging space tourism market, estimated at over a half-billion dollars.

The Lynx will offer affordable access to space for individuals, researchers and educators,” said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. “Future versions of Lynx will offer ever-improving capabilities for scientific and engineering research and commercial applications.

The spaceship, roughly the size of a small private airplane, will first take off in 2010 and will be capable of flying several times each day.

“We have designed this vehicle to operate much like a commercial aircraft. Its liquid fuel engines will provide the enhanced safety, durability, reliability and maintainability that keep operating costs low,” Greason said. “These engines will also minimize the impact of these flights on the environment,” Greason added. “They are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid fuel or hybrid rocket motors.”

“Lynx will be the ‘Greatest Ride Off Earth,’” said XCOR test pilot, former pilot astronaut and Space Shuttle commander, Col. Rick Searfoss (USAF-Ret.). “The acceleration, the weightlessness, and the view will provide you with an experience that is out of this world. And the best part of it all is that you’ll ride right up front, like a co-pilot, instead of in back, like cargo.”

XCOR has nine years’ experience developing reliable, reusable and non-toxic rocket propulsion systems and has already built and flown two different rocket-powered vehicles. The firm designed, built and flew a rocket propulsion system on its record-setting EZ-Rocket aircraft. The XCOR team then developed a more powerful engine with an advanced pump-fed fuel system for a larger aircraft now being flight-tested for a commercial customer.

The Lynx builds on our track record in rocket-powered vehicles,” Greason said. “By addressing profitable near-term markets, the Lynx will strengthen the financial and technical foundation for increasingly capable future spaceships for suborbital and orbital markets.”

“XCOR’s mission is to radically lower the cost of spaceflight, because affordable access to space for everyone means far more than breathtaking views and the freedom of weightlessness,” said Greason. “It means unlocking the material and energy resources and economic opportunities of our solar system for our children.”

XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, California. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket engines, rocket propulsion systems, and rocket powered vehicles.

“The government should be saying, ‘What is it that we can do? Is there a role for the province to play to making it a reality? Is it feasible?’ Those kinds of questions need to be asked so that some economic activity will be happening,” said opposition leader Stephen McNeil said.

Meanwhile, a couple of Canadian newspapers also have weighed in on prospects of a spaceport at Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. The Cape Breton Post says that prospects for the spaceport receded after PlanetSpace failed to win a $170 million award from NASA’s COTS program.

The Halifax Chronicle Herald reports that PlanetSpace officials are hoping to get a piece of a $2.3 billion NASA procurement contract expected to be awarded later this year. However, the company believes prospects are good even if they don’t receive the funding.

“Join 5 brothers in arms, board a private Gulf Stream jet and fly to Russia and watch them at the negotiating table as they close out the most remarkable business deal of the final frontier. Listen to the key players of the management team struggle with issues of branding, finance, technology and engaging in the ultimate slug fest with the most powerful governments in the world. Can these dreamers replace the bureaucratic and government vision of space with a radically new vision of individuals and private enterprise developing space for all of mankind? Have they found the final frontier?

Yes, they venture into space in order to make billions, but they also go to space with the deep conviction, vision and idealism to save Earth itself. Resources captured in space and sent back to Earth have the potential of solving the entire planet’s energy problems.”

You can learn more about the film and view a trailer at the film’s official website. There is also a trailer on the site.

The Bakersfield Californian has details, as does Space.com here. Neither story indicates why the company is appealing the fines, which were levied for citations alleging the company failed to adequately train workers and to maintain a safe working environment. The company has not commented publicly.

CalOSHA’s accident report indicates the employees were watching a cold-flow test from behind a chain link fence when the explosion occurred. Aviation Week reports this preliminary report points to an oxidizer tank as the cause of the explosion. The company is developing the suborbital tourist vehicle SpaceShipTwo for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

Read all about ABC’s poll here.

Rutan also says the company does still not know the cause of the explosion that killed three employees last summer. California safety officials issued citations totaling $25,000 for safety violations at the Mojave facility.

Flight School 2008 participants will include entrepreneurs, marketers, equipment manufacturers, aircraft and facilities operators as well as analysts, investors and regulators. They will come together to share experiences, refine strategies and better understand each other’s common pursuits and competitive positions.

“Personal spaceflight and private aviation start-ups are transforming the establishment in an exciting way,” said Dyson, creator of the Flight School workshops, chairman of EDventure and former host of PC Forum. “Years ago, I watched the Internet and the PC transform information technology from a world of scientists and government-funded high priests into a vibrant, innovative sector of commercially energized and fearless start-ups who have changed the world. Flight School 2008 is assembling the pioneers who will lead a similar transformation in air and space.”

Planned discussion topics for Flight School 2008 include:

• The air traffic control challenge: Growing up around an old model
• Air taxis: What have we learned so far?
• Air charter economics: Can they last?
• Safety, reliability and innovation
• Environmental issues: Facing the facts
• Finance: Where the money meets the clouds
• Insurance and legal issues
• Sizing the commercial space market
• The aftermarket: Hotels, tours and training

Flight School 2008 workshop sessions will be moderated by Dyson; Lon Rains, Editor-in-Chief of Space News and Christian Kjelgaard, Senior Editor of Aviation.com.

Space.com has the full story here.