Space Startup Scorecard 2009 January 17, 2009
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in ARCA, Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin, Canadian Arrow, PlanetSpace, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceDev, SpaceX, Starchaser, Tspace, UP Aerospace, X Class Orgs, XCOR.1 comment so far
The last time I did the scorecard was in 2007. Surprisingly, not a lot has changed. This was caused by two factors. First, not all of the companies are still pursuing private manned spaceflight. Instead Xcor and Planetspace are becoming engine and other parts suppliers to aerospace businesses. Others, like Transformational Space would like to be prime contractors and project managers rather than really hardware guys.
The second reason is that the milestones I have listed are extremely challenging. A few years ago, I don’t think most of us realized just how challenging they would be. ARCA, for example, has had multiple drop tests and balloon flights with various hardware configurations. They’ve also designed and test fired several engines and fuel combinations. They just haven’t fired a rocket after launching it on a balloon. They are progressing, but it’s painfully slow when viewed from the outside.
One other thing became clear as I read over company websites and profiles filling in the scorecards. Almost every one of these businesses submitted a proposal for NASA’s COTS program. We’ll dig a little deeper into that at a later date.
I’ve highlighted the few changes to the scorecard to make it easier to read.
Aerospace Startup Scorecard 2009
Upcoming Launches April 5, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, NASA, News and politics, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceX, UP Aerospace, schedule.add a comment
Of the seven launch vehicles mentioned below, three have experienced terminal failures in the past twelve months. This is just a reminder that what these people do is difficult, and success cannot be taken for granted.
April 7 – ISS Expedition 15 launches in a Soyuz-TMA From Baikonur Cosmodrome. The crew includes Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi.
April 19 – Bigelow Aerospace will launch Genesis II, their second subscale inflatable demonstrator aboard a dnepr rocket from ISC Kosmotras Space and Missile Complex near Yasny, Russia.
April 28 – UP Aerospace’s SpaceLoft will carry commercial and student payloads, including the remains of Gordon Cooper and James Doohan on a suborbital flight from New Mexico’s Space Port. This will be their second attempt after their launch failure in January.
Also in April, Armadillo Aerospace plans several test flights of Pixel, their Lunar Lander Challenge vehicle. The flights will take place at the Oklahoma Space Port.
In May or June, Space Shuttle Atlantis mission STS-117 should lift off From Cape Canaveral. The flight will flesh out the space station with the addition of new solar arrays.
SpaceX has two more launches scheduled for this year from their facility on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll. The first could be as early as August and will carry TacSat 1, a US military demonstrator. Their second flight, in the fourth quarter, will carry a Malaysian communications satellite.
After their last launch ended in a launch pad explosion, Sea Launch is repairing their floating facility and plans to be ready for their next launch in October.
Space Startup Scorecard March 25, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in ARCA, Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin, Canadian Arrow, PlanetSpace, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceDev, SpaceX, Starchaser, Tspace, UP Aerospace, XCOR.1 comment so far
Although many of the aerospace startups have differing goals, which make them difficult to compare, I thought it might be fun to take a quick look at how they all stack up. From my perspective, Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites/The Spaceship Company is still the most advanced business since they have the only manned flights under their belts. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and John Carmack’s Armadillo Aerospace have also made impressive strides in the past few years. Bigelow Aerospace is much more difficult to compare because they are not building rockets, and simply purchasing launch services from other vendors. I assume Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin have actually conducted static fire tests, but with their secretive ways, it’s difficult to tell.
If I’ve missed anything, feel free to add it in a comment, and I’ll update the chart. Thanks.
This Year in Space January 1, 2007
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in Armadillo Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, ESA, India, JAXA, NASA, Orbital SCiences, Rocketplane Kistler, Russia, Space Startups, SpaceX, UP Aerospace.add a comment
2006 was a pretty good year in space. The international launch community averaged over one orbital launch per week. U.S. and Russian providers carried out the bulk of the operations but the E.U., Japan, Israel and China also had successes under their belts. With four failed launch attempts, the failure rate was a mere 6%, which is considerably better than the historical average of 10%.
Manned spaceflight had a banner year. The International Space Station returned to a three-person crew and played host to astronauts and cosmonauts from the U.S., Russia, Germany, Sweden, and Japan. Although U.S. citizens, Astronauts born in Australia and England also visited the ISS and truly put the “International” in the International Space Station. Anousheh Ansari, perhaps the most famous space tourist to date, traveled to the station on one of two Soyuz flights this year. Her blog carried many dreamers with her on the ten-day journey.
NASA also managed to conduct two ISS construction flights. Space walkers and the robotic arm installed the P4 solar arrays, the P5 spacer truss, and rewired the electrical system to its permanent configuration. For the first time several years, the ISS actually looks different from the outside. Not only that, the increased power supplied by the new photovoltaic cells sets the stage for the installation of Japanese and European modules over the course of the next two years.
The emerging aerospace companies had more of a mixed year. SpaceX attempted to launch a partly reusable Falcon 1 at the start of the year, but suffered a major engine failure. Even with the loss of the vehicle, NASA still awarded them $278 million to develop cargo delivery and possibly human taxi services to the ISS. Rocketplane-Kistler won the other COTS development contract for $207 million to develop the same services.
UP Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace both struggled with suborbital flights. UP Aerospace lost their launcher the New Mexico’s innaugerral spaceport flight, when it veered off course and disappeared into the White Sands Missile Range. It took them over a week to recover the broken hardware so they could analyze the failure.
Armadillo conducted several spectacular flights at the X Prize Cup in October. In an attempt to secure the Lunar Lander Challenge, a golf cart sized LH/LOX rocket vehicle named Pixel had to traverse 100 feet, land, and then return to its launch pad. The team made three tries at the event, and accomplished the first half of the challenge, but suffered equipment malfunctions and other difficulties at the landing site. If their vehicle had been a bit more robust, they certainly would have succeeded.
Bigelow Aerospace impressed most space watchers with the launch of their first test of an inflatable orbital habitat. The subscale vehicle was launched on a Russian Dnepr rocket and surpassed expectations. The inflation was flawless, and the mini-space station established contact with Beigelow’s ground station. The on-board thrusters stabilized the initial tumbling, and the solar cells fed power to the systems. Video cameras mounted inside and outside let the world witness this privately funded success.
In the next installment we’ll take a look at the accomplishments of our unmanned explorers over 2006.
Space Flight Is Still Challenging September 26, 2006
Posted by Brian Pfeifer in Orbital SCiences, Rocketplane Kistler, Space Startups, SpaceX, UP Aerospace.add a comment
Today, both UP Aerospace and Rocketplane Kistler suffered serious setbacks. Though one was technical and the other financial and administrative, the both demonstrate that even suborbital space flights are not easy. UP Aerospace’s Spaceloft XL attempted it’s maiden flight, but the vehicle was lost after 13 minutes of flight. The solid fueled unmanned rocket was also the first launch at New Mexico’s new spaceport. The vehicle never made it to its intended altitude, and the exact nature of the malfunction is still unknown.
Rocketplane Kistler suffered a different kind of malfunction. Last month NASA awarded them $207 to fund their ISS resupply demonstrator as part of the COTS program. This should have made it easier for Kistler to secure the rest of the funding needed to complete the K-1 rocket. Unfortunately, their prime contractor, Orbital Sciences pulled out citing disagreements over Kistler’s business plan. Orbital also withdrew the $10 million they had promised to invest in the project. Almost as importantly, Rocketplane Kistler will loose the legitimacy brought by working with an established aerospace firm like Orbital Sciences.
With the high cost of spaceflight, a single setback like this can be devastating for a startup. President Reagan’s administration also attempted to encourage the development of private space flight. Out of all the startups that sprang into being, only one managed a launch during his presidency. The Conestoga was the nation’s first privately funded launch vehicle. Instead of leading to an era of private space launch, it exploded, causing investors to flee the industry. There was no second launch attempt for the Conestoga. Only one startup from that era is still in the launch business today. Orbital Sciences, and their Pegasus rocket have a proven track record for small payloads.
Hopefully, today’s aerospace startups will prove a bit more resilient. They’ll have to be if they want to succeed. The average launch failure rate around the world is still one in ten. This means that everyone who wants to launch rockets must expect launch failures during and even after development. In March, SpaceX, the other COTS contract recipient, suffered a technical malfunction on the maiden flight of their Falcon 1. Interestingly, NASA selected them after this failure. At least one investor has appears to have the guts it takes to stomach rocket development pains. Perhaps the industry will maintain a stronger base of support this time around.
