Commercial (Private) Space Industry

Over the last few years space travel has begun to develop in the United States in a quick fashion. Companies like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and Orbital Sciences who began development of private, commercial, space aircraft in the early 2000s have now completed several successful launches into space. The most notable launches were accomplished by SpaceX and Orbital Sciences where the two companies were contracted by NASA to build unmanned cargo ships to supply the International Space Station (ISS) (Fox, 2010, para. 2). On the other hand, Virgin Galactic (2016)  made its name as being the first private space company to send a person into space (para. 4). Despite the success that these private companies have achieved, they have also experienced setbacks in commercial space flight development.

The majority of setbacks experienced by the private space companies has come in the form of crashes. While most crashes are a part of flight testing and rarely result in human injuries, Virgin Galactic experienced a crash where one of the pilots had been killed and the other seriously injured during routine flight testing (Snyder & Kell, 2014). Events such as these are tough on the company’s image and prompts the question of how safe are these private-commercial space ships. For the time being, private space corporations are still in development and continue to look for the most efficient manned and unmanned commercial space ships available through today’s technology.

The Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) was created in 1984 under the Department of Transportation and was later moved under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1995 (Federal Aviation Administration, 2014). As stated by the FAA (2014), the AST was created to “encourage, facilitate, and promote commercial launches and reentries by the private sector” (para. 2). As organizations began development of private space vehicles in the early 2000s, the FAA recognized the importance of ensuring public safety and enacted commercial space regulations that can be found in 14 CFR under Parts 400 to 460 (FAA, 2016). Upon briefly reviewing the current regulations established under the above Parts of 14 CFR, I do believe that for the time being the regulations in place are enough for the types of developments being made in the commercial space industry. I do believe that as the technology improves, and as more milestones in the private-commercial space industry are met, the more safety regulations will be required.

If the private-commercial space continues in the direction of improvements it has made thus far, then I do see a possible future for space tourism. Considering the fact that we did not see the first successful space flight until five to seven years after most private space companies like Virgin Galactic started spacecraft development, I don’t foresee the space tourism sector of the industry to make any real progress until at least the next five to seven years. And when we do see private space tourism coming to fruition, I think that in my lifetime it will not reach a serious and safe enough level for mass public transportation. There wasn’t much I discovered in the way of jobs for pilots looking to fly the space vehicles for space tourism operations. It seems that a pilot or individual who meets NASA’s astronaut qualifications would be a suitable candidate for most space ship piloting positions.

References

Federal Aviation Administration. (2014). About the Office. Retrieved from http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/about/

Federal Aviation Administration. (2016). Office of Commercial Space Transportation Regulations. Retrieved from http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/regulations/

Fox, S. (2010, June 4). 6 Private Companies That Could Launch Humans Into Space. Space.com. Retrieved from http://www.space.com/8541-6-private-companies-launch-humans-space.html

Snyder, B., & Kell, John. (2014, Oct. 31). After two Crashes, Private Space Industry Faces Inevitable Questions. Fortune. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2014/10/31/after-two-crashes-private-space-industry-faces-inevitable-questions/

Virgin Galactic. (2016). A Brief History of Human Spaceflight. Retrieved from http://www.virgingalactic.com/human-spaceflight/history-of-human-spaceflight/