Excitement rockets as astronauts launch era
The successful launch by SpaceX of two astronauts into space has unleashed a wave of excitement for a new era of space travel in a world weighed down by uncertainty and grief.
Few people seemed more affected by the sight of the first commercial astronaut launch in history than Elon Musk, SpaceX chief executive and the billionaire founder of Tesla, the electric carmaker.
“This is something that should get people right in the heart,” he said shortly after Sunday’s launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, as the normally outspoken boss appeared to be temporarily at a loss for words.
“It appeals to anyone around the world who has that spirit for exploration.
“I am quite overcome. It’s hard to talk, frankly, we’ve spent 18 years working towards this.”
The launch was not just an impressive technical achievement. It also provided the most compelling evidence yet that the global space is being rapidly transformed by the forces of private enterprise — and a host of ambitious new entrants who believe they can radically cut the cost of sending rockets into space.
Space exploration has shifted from being an industry entirely dominated by a handful of nation states with enough resources to pay for it — to a new competitive battleground for wealthy entrepreneurs.
Above all, it is the billionaires of Silicon Valley who have pushed themselves to the forefront of the space sector, which is expected to be worth about US$1 trillion by 2040.
While SpaceX, led by Musk, has arguably taken the lead, others including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos are also pursuing projects to get humans to return to the moon, initiate space tourism and even head to Mars.
The rise of these new privately backed space companies has accompanied the gradual decline of America’s state-run space programme, Nasa, in recent decades.
The astronomical costs involved, the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003 and a string of other problems and delays led to a steady reduction in Nasa’s space programme.
Other countries — including Russia, China and India — also proved they were able to effectively launch their own rockets at far lower costs. America’s final crewed mission came in 2011 — the last time astronauts took off from US soil.
More than anything, this new breed of space entrepreneurs, including Musk, has brought a relentless focus on how to cut costs.
The price of an average space
It is a very significant step for the industry at large because this kicks off commercial space travel. It opens up markets like space tourism and space mining.
Shagun Sachdeva
shuttle launch clocked in at US$1.5 billion ($2.3b) across their hundreds of flights. Now, SpaceX is able to launch its own Falcon 9 rockets for just US$62 million.
It’s hard to overstate the significance of this trend.
When SpaceX was founded in 2002, Musk had just netted US$160m from the sale of PayPal.
He pored over rocketry text books, saying flight costs could be cut by a factor of 10 with the ultimate aim of reaching Mars.
While the billionaire has no shortage of critics thanks to his outbursts on social media, his plans for SpaceX to use reusable rockets — which are caught at sea as they fall back to earth after being jettisoned — are reshaping the commercial calculus of space travel.
With what began as a literal moon shot, and a risky one at that, SpaceX nearly went bust several times — including in 2008 after three failed launches of its Falcon 1 rocket.
It now employs 8000 people and is worth an estimated US$36b, according to its latest private fundraising rounds. But Musk is not alone in accelerating the space race. “It is a very significant step for the industry at large because this kicks off commercial space travel,” says Shagun Sachdeva, of space consultancy Northern Sky Research.
“It opens up markets like space tourism and space mining. And, she adds: “While SpaceX is the first private company to put crew in space, there are other companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin working towards similar goals.”
SpaceX may be ahead, but other ventures are not far behind. Bezos, a Star Trek fan, is pumping US$1b of his Amazon shares each year into Blue Origin, a space tourism venture which is also working on reusable rockets. Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson, is also working towards space tourism, although using a suborbital space plane instead of rockets.
“They have had the vision and determination to take on a monumental task of building a whole new rocket system,” says Graham Peters, of UKspace. “That has taken quite a lot of bravery — and a lot of money.”