Moon missions are essential to the exploration of more distant worlds. Photograph courtesy NASA Looking to the moon The investigation into the fatal accident led to major design changes for future launch vehicles. On the morning of January 27, 1967, the crew was sitting atop the launch pad for a pre-launch test when a fire broke out in their capsule, killing all three astronauts. With these and other spacecraft in the pipeline, countless dreams of zero-gravity somersaults could soon become a reality-at least for passengers able to pay the hefty sums for the experience.Īpollo 1 astronauts "Gus" Grissom (left), Edward White, and Roger Chaffee pose in front of the Saturn 1 launch vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Test launch video from inside the cabin of Blue Origin’s New Shepard shows off breathtaking views of our planet and a relatively calm journey for its first passenger, a test dummy cleverly dubbed “Mannequin Skywalker.” Virgin Galactic is running test flights on its sub-orbital spaceplane, which will offer paying customers roughly six minutes of weightlessness during its journey through Earth’s atmosphere. Other companies, such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, are specializing in sub-orbital space tourism. Boeing is currently developing its Starliner spacecraft and hopes to begin carrying astronauts to the ISS in 2021. The mission, called Demo-2, is scheduled to return to Earth in August. And in May 2020, the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS, becoming the first crewed mission to launch from the United States in nearly a decade. SpaceX, which established a new paradigm by developing reusable rockets, has been running regular cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station since 2012. Once those vehicles are built, both companies retain ownership and control of the craft, and NASA can send astronauts into space for a fraction of the cost of a seat on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. Through it, NASA is relying on SpaceX and Boeing to build spacecraft capable of carrying humans into orbit. Today, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is expanding on the agency’s relationship with private companies. In the United States, commercial companies played a role in the aerospace industry right from the start: Since the 1960s, NASA has relied on private contractors to build spacecraft for every major human spaceflight program, starting with Project Mercury and continuing until the present.
Private spaceflight is not a new concept. This year, SpaceX achieved a major milestone- launching humans to the International Space Station (ISS) from the United States-but additional goalposts are on the star-studded horizon. Now, instead of warring superpowers battling for dominance in orbit, private companies are competing to make space travel easier and more affordable. Welcome to the 21st-century space race, one that could potentially lead to 10-minute space vacations, orbiting space hotels, and humans on Mars.