Billionaire space race

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Jeff Bezos at Amazon Spheres Grand Opening in Seattle - 2018 (39074799225) (cropped).jpg
Richard Branson UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012.jpg
Elon Musk - The Summit 2013.jpg
Jeff Bezos (top), Richard Branson (middle) and Elon Musk (bottom), widely seen as the main competitors of the billionaire space race [1]

The billionaire space race [2] [3] [4] [5] is the rivalry among entrepreneurs who have entered the space industry from other industries - particularly computing. [6] [7] This private spaceflight race involves sending privately developed rockets and vehicles to various destinations in space, often in response to government programs or to develop the space tourism sector. [8]

Contents

Since 2018 the billionaire space race has primarily been between three billionaires and their respective firms:

Prior to his death in 2018, Paul Allen was also a major player in the billionaire space race through the aerospace division of his firm Vulcan and his financing of programs such as Scaled Composites Tier One. Allen sought to reduce the cost of launching payloads into orbit. [4] [9] [5]

Background

The groundwork for the billionaire space race and private spaceflight was arguably laid by Peter Diamandis, an American entrepreneur. In the 1980s, he founded an American national student space society, the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS). Later, Jeff Bezos became a chapter president of SEDS. In the 1990s, Diamandis, disappointed with the state of space development, decided to spur it on and spark the suborbital space tourism market, by initiating a prize, the X Prize. This led to Paul Allen becoming involved in the competition, creating the Scaled Composites Tier One platform of SpaceShipOne and White Knight One which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004. The technology of the winning entrant was then licensed by Richard Branson's Virgin Group as a basis to found Virgin Galactic. The base techniques of Tier One also form the basis for Stratolaunch Systems (formerly of Vulcan Aerospace). [10] [8] Elon Musk's SpaceX was established in 2002, last among the three main rivals. Speaking at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and without reference to private spaceflight Elon Musk expressed excitement for a new space race in 2018. [11]

Government programs have also fuelled the billionaire space race. NASA programs such as the Commercial Crew Program (created in 2010, with grants mostly won by SpaceX and partially by Blue Origin) and the Artemis HLS program (awarded to SpaceX in 2021 and also to Blue Origin in 2023) have pushed the billionaires to compete against each other to be selected for those multi-billion dollar procurement programs. The competition has also resulted in court battles such as Blue Origin v. United States & SpaceX . Those government programs have provided critical funding for the new private space industry and its development. [12]

Major milestones

Rivalries

SpaceX vs. Blue Origin

SpaceX and Blue Origin have had a long history of conflict. [5] [7] Blue Origin and SpaceX have had dueling press releases that compete with each other's announcements and events. [15] [16]

SpaceX and Blue Origin battled for the right to lease LC-39A, the rocket launch platform that was used to launch the Apollo Moon missions. SpaceX won the lease in 2013, but Blue Origin filed suit in court against that. It is currently in the hands of SpaceX, while Blue Origin rented SLC-36 instead. [7]

SpaceX filed suit against Blue Origin to invalidate their patent on landing rockets aboard ships at sea. They won their court fight in 2014. SpaceX had been attempting to land rockets at sea since 2014, finally succeeding in 2016, before Blue Origin first built a sea-going platform for landing rockets. [7]

SpaceX and Blue Origin got into a Twitter battle about the meaning of a used rocket, landed rocket, spacerocket, at the end of 2015, when New Shepard successfully landed, after a suborbital jaunt into space. SpaceX had previously launched and landed its Grasshopper rocket multiple times without reaching space. Then SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 first stage, which had been used to launch a satellite into orbit, prompting more Twitter battles at the start of 2016, such as Bezos tweeting "welcome to the club". [7] [17]

In late 2016, Blue Origin announced the New Glenn, directly competing against SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, with a larger rocket but lower payload. [18]

At the 2016 International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson elaborated on the Bezos vision previously outlined in the New Glenn announcement. The Blue Origin New Armstrong would be similar in function to the SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System that Elon Musk unveiled at the same conference. [19]

In April 2021, SpaceX beat Blue Origin to a $2.9 billion dollar contract to build the lunar lander for NASA's Artemis program. [20] In August 2021, Blue Origin subsequently began a legal case against NASA and SpaceX in the Court of Federal Claims, which was dismissed in November of the same year. [21] About two years later in May 2023 NASA awarded Blue Origin a $3.4 billion contract to develop a competing Moon lander, noting that "adding another human landing system partner to NASA’s Artemis program will increase competition, reduce costs to taxpayers, support a regular cadence of lunar landings, further invest in the lunar economy, and help NASA achieve its goals on and around the Moon in preparation for future astronaut missions to Mars." [22] [23]

Blue Origin vs. Virgin Galactic

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are in the same market, suborbital space tourism, with the space capsule New Shepard and the spaceplane SpaceShipTwo, respectively. [24] [25] [3] [1] The two systems made their first flights with multiple passengers within 10 days: SpaceShipTwo flew on July 11, 2021 and New Shepard followed on July 20, both carrying their billionaire founders and a few other passengers. As of July 2023, SpaceShipTwo has made three tourism flights with two pilots and four passengers each while New Shepard has made six flights with six passengers each.

In May of 2023 Richard Branson ended Virgin Orbit in bankruptcy, and then in December of 2023 he announced that he won't invest any more money in Virgin Galactic, having already put one billion dollars into the project, he said that they should have enough money to continue without any more from him. [26]

Former rivalries

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, was an active early participant in the billionaire space race Paul G. Allen (cropped).jpg
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, was an active early participant in the billionaire space race

Stratolaunch vs. Virgin Orbit

The Stratolaunch rivalries are no longer part of the billionaire space race, after 2019, having been suspended at the time of Paul Allen's death. [9] [27] The Stratolaunch company has since continued operations under new ownership, but does not focus on orbital space launches anymore.

Vulcan Aerospace subsidiary Stratolaunch Systems planned to air-launch satellite launcher rockets, the same profile as planned by Virgin Orbit for its LauncherOne operations. While LauncherOne was developed and launch aircraft procured (once White Knight Two, now 747 Cosmic Girl), the Scaled Composites "Roc" Model 351 is still being developed (as of 2022) and the rocket to mate to it (the company has refocused away from orbital spaceflight) has yet to be selected. [28] After the death of Paul Allen in 2018, Stratolaunch was sold, and no longer a billionaire insurgent venture. [9]

Criticism

The critical response to space tourism has lambasted billionaire founders (e.g., Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos), downplayed their achievement, and questioned their environmental, financial, and social/ethical practices. This discursive contention is sharply opposed to dominant narratives which typically frame space tourism as a net positive for humankind. [29]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space tourism</span> Human space travel for recreation

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, feeling weightlessness, experiencing extremely high speed and something unusual, and contributing to science.

Human spaceflight programs have been conducted, started, or planned by multiple countries and companies. Until the 21st century, human spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments, through either the military or civilian space agencies. With the launch of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of human spaceflight programs – commercial human spaceflight – arrived. By the end of 2022, three countries and one private company (SpaceX) had successfully launched humans to Earth orbit, and two private companies had launched humans on a suborbital trajectory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space Age</span> Historical period started in 1957

The Space Age is a period encompassing the activities related to the space race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events, beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, and continuing to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private spaceflight</span> Spaceflight not paid for by a government agency

Private spaceflight refers to spaceflight activities undertaken by non-governmental entities, such as corporations, individuals, or non-profit organizations. This contrasts with public spaceflight, which is traditionally conducted by government agencies like NASA, ESA, or JAXA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Origin</span> American aerospace company

Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P., commonly referred to as Blue Origin is an American aerospace manufacturer, defense contractor, launch service provider and space technologies company headquartered in Kent, Washington, United States. The company makes rocket engines for United Launch Alliance (ULA)'s Vulcan rocket and manufactures their own rockets, spacecraft, satellites, and heavy-lift launch vehicles. The company is the second provider of lunar lander services for NASA's Artemis program and was awarded a $3.4 billion contract. The four rocket engines the company has in production are the BE-3U, BE-3PM, BE-4 and the BE-7.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Galactic</span> Space tourism company

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic's maiden spaceflight occurred in 2018 with its VSS Unity spaceship. Branson had originally hoped to see a maiden spaceflight by 2010, but the date was delayed for several years, and then delayed again, primarily due to the October 2014 crash of VSS Enterprise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial astronaut</span> Astronaut employed by a company instead of a government

A commercial astronaut is a person who has commanded, piloted, or served as an active crew member of a privately funded spacecraft. This is distinct from an otherwise non-government astronaut, for example Charlie Walker, who flies while representing a non-government corporation but with funding or training or both coming from government sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VTVL</span> Method of takeoff and landing used by rockets; vertical takeoff, vertical landing

Vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) is a form of takeoff and landing for rockets. Multiple VTVL craft have flown. The most successful VTVL vehicle was the Apollo Lunar Module which delivered the first humans to the Moon. Building on the decades of development, SpaceX utilised the VTVL concept for its flagship Falcon 9 first stage, which has delivered over two hundred successful powered landings so far.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LauncherOne</span> Two-stage, air-launched rocket by Virgin Orbit

LauncherOne was a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed and flown by Virgin Orbit that had operational flights from 2021 to 2023, after being in development from 2007 to 2020. It was an air-launched rocket, designed to carry smallsat payloads of up to 300 kg (660 lb) into Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), following air launch from a carrier aircraft at high altitude. The rocket was carried to the upper atmosphere on a modified Boeing 747-400, named Cosmic Girl, and released over ocean. Initial work on the program was done by Virgin Galactic, another Virgin Group subsidiary, before a separate entity — Virgin Orbit — was formed in 2017 to complete development and operate the launch service provider business separately from the passenger-carrying Virgin Galactic business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourism on the Moon</span> Future plans to make the Moon available for tourism

Lunar tourism may be possible in the future if trips to the Moon are made available to a private audience. Some space tourism startup companies are planning to offer tourism on or around the Moon, and estimate this to be possible sometime between 2023 and 2043.

<i>Spirit of Mojave</i> 747 mothership for air launch hypersonic vehicle testbed

Spirit of Mojave, previously Cosmic Girl is a Boeing 747-400 aircraft. A former passenger airliner operated by Virgin Atlantic, it was purchased by Virgin Galactic in 2015 to be used as the first stage launch platform for the air launch stage of the smallsat orbital launch vehicle, the LauncherOne. In 2017, the aircraft was transferred to the orbital launch subsidiary, Virgin Orbit, and its livery updated to Virgin Orbit. LauncherOne attempted its first launch on 25 May 2020; the launch was a failure. The first successful launch took place on 17 January 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of private spaceflight</span>

The following is a timeline of important events in the history of private spaceflight, including important technical as well as legislative and political advances. Though the industry has its origins in the early 1960s, soon after the beginning of the Space Age, private companies did not begin conducting launches into space until the 1980s, and it was not until the 21st century that multiple companies began privately developing and operating launch vehicles and spacecraft in earnest.

The Mars race, race to Mars or race for Mars is the competitive environment between various national space agencies, "New Space" and aerospace manufacturers involving crewed missions to Mars, land on Mars, or set a crewed base there. Some of these efforts are part of a greater Mars colonization vision, while others are for glory, or scientific endeavours. Some of this competitiveness is part of the New Space race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Orbit</span> Defunct American aerospace company

Virgin Orbit was a company within the Virgin Group that provided launch services for small satellites. The company was formed in 2017 as a spin-off of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism venture to develop and market the LauncherOne rocket, which had previously been a project under Virgin Galactic. LauncherOne was a two-stage launch vehicle, air-launched from a Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, designed to deliver 300 kg of payload to low Earth orbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 in spaceflight</span> Spaceflight-related events during the year 2021

The year 2021 broke the record for the most orbital launch attempts till then (146) and most humans in space concurrently (19) despite the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starship HLS</span> Lunar lander variant of SpaceX Starship

Starship HLS is a lunar lander variant of the Starship spacecraft that is slated to transfer astronauts from a lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back. It is being designed and built by SpaceX under the Human Landing System contract to NASA as a critical element of NASA's Artemis program to land a crew on the Moon.

Virgin Galactic <i>Unity</i> 22 2021 American crewed sub-orbital spaceflight

Virgin Galactic Unity 22 was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity which launched on 11 July 2021. The crew consisted of pilots David Mackay and Michael Masucci as well as passengers Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett, Beth Moses, and Richard Branson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Daemen</span> Dutch space tourist

Oliver Daemen is a Dutch space tourist who flew as part of the 20 July 2021, sub-orbital Blue Origin NS-16 spaceflight. At the time of his flight he was 18 years old, and became the youngest person, first teenager, and first person born in the 21st century to travel to space using the United States definition of the boundary of space. He is a licensed pilot.

References

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  2. ↑ Bernstein, Joshua D. (May 2024). "The billionaire space race: Internet memes and the netizen response to space tourism". Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights. 5 (1): 100122. doi: 10.1016/j.annale.2024.100122 .
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  4. 1 2 Robert Lafranco (13 April 2015). "Allen and Branson Best Musk as the Billionaire Space Race Takes Off". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2019-04-28. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Charles W. Luzier (17 September 2016). "The great billionaire space race". The Week. Reuters. Archived from the original on 28 April 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  6. ↑ Matthew Lynn (May 2016). "Watch this space: why billionaires are launching extraterrestrial adventures". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 2018-06-14.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Christian Davenport (19 August 2016). "The inside story of how billionaires are racing to take you to outer space". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  8. 1 2 Julian Guthrie (2016). How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight. Penguin Press. ISBN   978-1594206726.
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  10. ↑ Vivek Wadhwa (19 September 2016). "The renegade whose dream started the latest space race". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  11. ↑ Alan Yuhas (9 February 2018). "The new space race: how billionaires launched the next era of exploration". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  12. ↑ Ben-Itzhak, Svetla (January 11, 2022). "Companies are commercializing outer space. Do government programs still matter?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 21, 2023. Retrieved July 1, 2023.
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  14. ↑ Chang, Kenneth (2021-07-20). "Latest Updates: Bezos and Blue Origin Crew Land After Short Flight to Space". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  15. ↑ Dana Hull (8 March 2017). "SpaceX Will Launch Its First Reused Rocket Later This Month". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2017-04-05. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
  16. ↑ Rae Paoletta (31 March 2017). "Is Blue Origin's Tourist Capsule Sexier Than SpaceX's?". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  17. ↑ Bezos, Jeff [@JeffBezos] (December 22, 2015). "Congrats @SpaceX on landing Falcon's suborbital booster stage. Welcome to the club!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2021-09-10. Retrieved 2021-09-11– via Twitter.
  18. ↑ Eric Mack (12 September 2016). "Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to take on SpaceX with supersized rocket New Glenn". cNet news. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
  19. ↑ Alan Boyle (27 September 2016). "Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture sets its sights on trips to Mars and the moon". GeekWire. Archived from the original on 28 September 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  20. ↑ Brown, Katherine (2021-04-16). "NASA Picks SpaceX to Land Next Americans on Moon". NASA (Press release). Archived from the original on 2021-04-22. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  21. ↑ Sheetz, Michael (2021-11-04). "Bezos' Blue Origin loses NASA lawsuit over SpaceX $2.9 billion lunar lander contract". CNBC. Archived from the original on 2022-01-04. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  22. ↑ "NASA Selects Blue Origin as Second Artemis Lunar Lander Provider". Archived from the original on 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  23. ↑ "Bezos' Blue Origin wins NASA astronaut moon lander contract to compete with SpaceX's Starship". CNBC . 19 May 2023. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  24. ↑ Josh Hrala (4 August 2016). "Virgin Galactic is finally licensed to take tourists into space". Science Alert. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  25. ↑ Jackie Wattles (20 June 2016). "Blue Origin successfully crash tests space-tourism capsule". CNN Money. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  26. ↑ Steve Symington (23 December 2023). "No More Cash From Richard Branson: Is This The End For Virgin Galactic?". The Motley Fool. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  27. ↑ Stephen Clark (11 October 2019). "Stratolaunch under new ownership". Spaceflight Now. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  28. ↑ Max Lewontin (20 June 2016). "Paul Allen vs. Elon Musk: a different approach to satellite launches". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 28 September 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
  29. ↑ Bernstein, Joshua D. (May 2024). "The billionaire space race: Internet memes and the netizen response to space tourism". Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights. 5 (1): 100122. doi: 10.1016/j.annale.2024.100122 .

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