The budding personal space travel industry anticipates
progress on a number of fronts in 2007, including favorable U.S. regulatory
decisions, the availability of affordable insurance, new spaceport developments
and increased testing of new spaceship designs.
While noting the progress 2007 is expected to bring, the
head of the newly formed Personal Spaceflight Federation (PSF) says the
industry is still at the starting gate.
"We're still in the developing capabilities phase," said Bretton
Alexander, vice president of corporate and external affairs at Transformational
Space Corp. (t/Space) and the first president of Washington-based PSF.
PSF is an industry alliance of more than a dozen businesses
and organizations engaged in commercial human spaceflight. The organization was
created to address regulatory, legislative and policy issues facing the
industry, Alexander said.
PSF members include spaceship developers and operators, spaceports,
space destination and transportation agents. The list of companies involved in
the industry include Bigelow Aerospace, a manufacturer of expandable
spacecraft, as well as rocket and spacecraft developers such as Space
Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), SpaceDev, Rocketplane-Kistler and XCOR
Aerospace.
Within the next few months the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation is expected to issue
its final rules for the licenses that commercial suborbital spacecraft owners
will need in order to conduct checkout and flight verification missions.
One part of the FAA rulemaking is designed to protect the
safety of members of the public who are not involved in private space travel
operations. Another part of the new rulemaking will contain regulations
designed to ensure that passengers--called "Space Flight Participants" in FAA
documents--are able to make informed decisions about their personal safety
before boarding private spaceliners.
Insurance and liability
John Gedmark, PSF's executive director, foresees continued
research and development activity on a number of vehicles and spaceports
throughout the year.
"We anticipate these activities will lead to vigorous flight
testing in the following year, with the first commercial suborbital passenger
flights taking place in 2009," Gedmark said.
But Alexander said there would be important areas that are
not addressed in the new FAA regulations, particularly issues of insurance and
liability.
"That's where the industry and particularly the federation
are going to spend a lot of its efforts. We want to make sure insurance is
available, that it's affordable and that [the industry] can withstand an
accident--that is likely to happen sometime in the first few years of this
activity," Alexander told Space News.
One issue still to be worked out is a standard cross waiver
of liability, Alexander said. Cross waivers of liability such as those that
exist for expendable launch vehicle missions and space shuttle and space station
activities provide some protection from lawsuits to companies and individuals
involved in the specified activity.
The PSF also is focused on getting the FAA to come up with a
workable definition of "informed consent," that will apply to future commercial
space passengers who will be asked to sign liability waivers acknowledging the
risks involved in commercial spaceflight, Alexander said. "You've got to
regulate for safety, but you must get informed consent from passengers. What is
the standard for informed?"
Momentum and the legitimacy
"If 2007 can build on the momentum from the end of 2006, the
space tourism industry will be in great shape," said William Pomerantz,
director of space projects for the X Prize Foundation, of Santa Monica, Calif.
Pomerantz pointed to the Nov. 13 flight of Blue Origin's
unpiloted Goddard vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, the beginning of a
project to develop passenger-carrying suborbital space ships. Blue Origin is
backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. Goddard made this
first test flight from Blue Origin's privately owned West Texas space launch
site. More test flights are scheduled to take place in 2007 as the company
refines its designs for the New Shepard, a vehicle that will be designed to take
commercial passengers on flights into suborbital space.
Another milestone is expected in October when the Wirefly X
Prize Cup will be staged again in Las Cruces, N.M., showcasing the evolution of
numerous private space rocket ventures, Pomerantz said. "All of this is adding
to the momentum and the legitimacy of the space tourism industry."
Meanwhile, phased work on New Mexico's Spaceport America has
started. The New Mexico spaceport is scheduled to be the world headquarters for
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceline. Current plans are
to locate it 18.6 kilometers east of Truth or Consequences, N.M., and 30
kilometers north of Las Cruces.
A major step toward its construction took place Dec. 21 when
the New Mexico Spaceport Authority secured long-term access to 72.8 square
kilometers. Legal agreements were signed with the State Land Office, Sierra County,
and two private ranch operations.
The voters of Dona Ana County in southern New Mexico will go
to the polls April 3 to vote for a 0.25-cent gross receipts tax that will be
used to fund infrastructure for Spaceport America and a math and science
education program in the county school system.
"This is an important vote, because the credibility and
viability of New Mexico's spaceport, Virgin Galactic and the new space industry
will be on the line," said Rick Homans, chairman of the New Mexico Spaceport
Authority and the state's cabinet secretary of economic development.
Homans told Space News the tax will generate about $6.8
million each year, for 20 years. "Surrounding the election there will be a lot
of questions asked and answered, and a positive vote will say a lot about the
commitment in New Mexico to the bold and innovative goal to build the world's
first purpose-built commercial spaceport," Homans said.
Rocket City
Spaceport America also will be the site for UP Aerospace's
return to flight following the Sept. 25 mishap that led to the crash of its SpaceLoft
XL suborbital rocket. In the inaugural flight for the spaceport, the SpaceLoft
XL rocket dove into the remote desert after 90 seconds of flight, destroying
customer payloads.
UP Aerospace, with its primary business office in Highlands
Ranch, Colo., is developing the SpaceLoft XL to carry scientific, educational
and entrepreneurial payloads into suborbital space. The firm now is targeting
its next launch from the site in April if it wins FAA approval for another
launch. UP Aerospace also is working on a multiyear lease agreement with New
Mexico Spaceport America officials.
Starchaser Industries of the United Kingdom also is eyeing New
Mexico as a center for its operations. The group intends to open the first
phase of its New Mexico-based Starchaser Rocket City resort in 2007, said
Steven Bennett, chief executive officer of the rocket company.
Starchaser is developing the Thunderstar, passenger-carrying
space ship. Bennett said that flights aboard the Thunderstar/Starchaser 5
rocket vehicles could take place from Spaceport America as early as 2009.
No substitutes for safety
According to Patricia Grace Smith, the FAA's associate
administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, 2007 is the "bridge year"
for private human spaceflight--from business plans to start up to bending
metal to firm and projected dates for initial operations.
"By year's end, I expect a substantially increased number of
tests and experimentally permitted flights on the path to piloted flights in
the foreseeable future," Smith said.
"The vital ingredient in all this is scrupulous adherence to
the safest possible operations," she said. Smith said safety is the goal that
all agree is imperative. "To the extent that all parties accept no substitutes
for safety, private human spaceflight will grow in public acceptance and esteem
to a point in time when it will be a routine form of transportation. That's why
testing is vital, and that's why I expect to see more of it in 2007," she
concluded.
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