The question is, will such strong ties to the old guard - and the old school - help carry the companies to the stars or strap them to a sinking ship? And can NASA keep the cash taps open over the long haul? The mainstay rocket all but guarantees United Launch Alliance a future place at the table - that, and ULA's 75 successful launches since its formation in 2006 (40 of which involved Atlas V vehicles). Meanwhile, United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, continues to build Atlas V rockets, the platform on which several commercial ventures plan to launch their space planes or crew capsules. Also on Boeing's to-do list: the core stage for NASA's Space Launch System, which the company will begin testing in January 2014. NASA funded the ship via its Commercial Crew Development program to the tune of $110 million. In October 2011, Boeing signed a 15-year lease to use a space shuttle hangar at Kennedy Space Center to build and oversee its Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) spacecraft. īut relying on government capital raises a difficult question: Will the funding continue? Against such uncertainty, sometimes the only response is to take things one (fierce) step at a time, like our next company. SpaceX had already completed two such missions by that time.

So far, so good: As of September 2013, Orbital was performing its demonstration run to prove to NASA that its tech and expertise were good enough to pull off touchy orbital maneuvers and autonomously dock with the ISS. to ferry cargo to and from the International Space Station: eight flights from Orbital (valued at about $1.9 billion) and 12 flights from SpaceX (valued at about $1.6 billion). In 2008, the space agency entered into billion-dollar contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. Its Commercial Crew Initiative incentivizes space enterprises to build cheap space taxi services for astronauts and cargo. NASA, too, helps bootstrap private enterprises through its Centennial Challenges and collaborations with commercial space companies, and by offering some of its idle launch pads for private rental. In preparation for the next phase, called Commercial Crew Transportation Capability, or CCtCap, the space agency issued a draft request for proposals during the summer of 2013. (SpaceX) and Sierra Nevada Corp., continues to pass milestone after milestone. In particular, its commercial crew initiative, which supports space ambitions at Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. NASA, meanwhile, is leveraging its resources to jump-start the process. With deep enough pockets, they can skip the economic and political risks of establishing their own space program and, for a relative pittance, flag down a parabolic taxi, book lodgings on a space station or secure cargo room for a satellite, experiment or instruments. Privatized rockets and space stations open up orbital access to nations, businesses and even people. Today, countries and companies small and large jockey for position in the suborbital track, and many analysts think that's a good thing.

Race into space mini shuttle