Rocket to Space

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• |  Updated: 4:25 pm ET October 6, 2009

Later this year, Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch.

To the layperson, its specs read like an Isaac Asimov novel: a reusable fuselage of aluminum-lithium alloy; a carbon fiber aluminum-core skeleton; a two-stage, liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene powered engine; all with the ability to attach to a Dragon capsule holding seven people.

And it's capable of placing 21,000 pounds of material into low earth orbit, for the cost of only about $37 million per flight.

Sound pricey? Compare that to $500 million, which is about what it costs for the space shuttle to ferry a payload into space. Two years ago, SpaceX, the company making Falcon 9, was tapped by NASA to take over supply missions to the International Space Station when the shuttle retires in 2010.

SpaceX's ship is one of a new generation of space vehicles being built by more than half a dozen enterprising companies that aim to take cargo, people, and other payloads to the brink of space cheaper and easier than ever before.

Each company takes a different approach to the design of its vessels. Some lift off on runways while others launch from concrete pads. Most have wings and glide back to earth after they touch space, while others descend straight down. Some aim for low earth orbit, whereas others shoot for beyond.

“This type of creativity is what aviation was like in the early days,” says George Nield, associate administrator for the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation. “There were literally hundreds of companies that built airplanes back in the early 1900s.”

The first vehicle to grab the public's attention and push commercial space flight closer to reality was Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition in 2004. Richard Branson's intensive space tourism efforts with Virgin Galactic have since raised the profile even more for their next spaceplane, SpaceShipTwo.

At this early stage in the growth of commercial space, it's still unclear which model will be the safest, the least expensive, and the most reliable. It could very well be that each one will have different strengths and weaknesses, and find its own niche in the industry.

In any case, the number of variations of ship designs is impressive.

SpaceShipTwo gets its initial lift from a carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, which is comparable in size to Boeing's B-29 Superfortress, a long-range bomber that flew during World War II. The carrier climbs up to about 50,000 feet before the eight-seater is dropped and the rocket engine is fired. After lingering in space long enough to provide several minutes of weightlessness for its passengers, the craft glides back to earth, landing on a runway like those at a typical airport.

Then there's Rocketplane, which is building a vehicle that more closely resembles a business jet than a traditional rocket. With rocket and airplane engines, the ship aims to treat passengers to four minutes of weightlessness. Designed to operate out of a conventional airport, it can fly out over sparsely populated areas to fire its rocket to get to space and then integrate back into regular air traffic powered by its airplane engines.

The California company XCOR Aerospace's rocket-powered aircraft is similar to Rocketplane in style, but lacks the airplane engine. Its rocket engines can be toggled on and off, giving the vessel more flexibility (and more simplicity). Expected to carry a pilot and one passenger to space several times a day, XCOR's Lynx will spend about 30 minutes total flight time for each trip.

Another design, from SpaceDev, takes advantage of years of testing and analysis already done by NASA. A sort of mini space shuttle, this concept calls for a winged shuttle perched on top of a traditional rocket. The vehicle would glide back for a runway landing, like the space shuttle, but the much smaller size would make it less expensive to operate.

The unique-looking Armadillo Aerospace endeavor calls for a vertical takeoff and landing. Don't be fooled by its unusual popcorn-like look — this bird can fly. In October 2008, Armadillo won the $350,000 Lunar Landing Challenge by completing the first level of a vertical takeoff and landing contest.

Blue Origin, run by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, has been hush-hush about its experimental program. There have been successful test flights, however, under the umbrella of an experimental launch permit from the FAA. After vertical takeoff, this model is designed to fly a suborbital trajectory and then land vertically on a concrete pad. A number of scientific experiments are planned. “They are very serious about it,” Nield says.

The 68 employees of the Office of Commercial Space haven't chosen a winning horse, nor will they. Each experimental permit application undergoes the same review process and flight crew must adhere to human spaceflight regulations.

For instance, all space pilots must have a pilot certificate with an instrument rating, plus training specific to the vehicle.

When the rules were first developed by the FAA, some industry voices questioned why a pilot certificate was even necessary. Some of their vehicles don't even have wings, they argued.

“But in the end, it was still important to have a pilot certification rating,” says Ken Wong, manager of the licensing and safety division, who helped shape the rules. “Regardless, that vehicle will still be transitioning through the national airspace.”

So far, the requirements for space flight passengers are relatively sparse. Along with mandatory informed consent education, travelers must know how to respond to emergency situations onboard should one arise. There’s no expectation that a passenger might have to take the controls — just that he or she knows how to stay out of the way of crew members who must.

As with aviation regulations, human spaceflight requirements will evolve in the years to come.

“Definitely, when we developed the requirements for crew and spaceflight participants, we knew that it was just the beginning,” Wong says.

Some industry experts advocate for more stringent health standards for crew and passengers, some less. The FAA takes these into consideration, along with lessons learned from NASA and the Department of Defense.

Nield and other commercial space insiders believe the industry will experience a boom in activity in five to 10 years. Hundreds of launches, involving a variety of vehicles, will take place every year. Nield says the Office of Commercial Space is prepared for such an expansion.

“I think that’s going to raise the interest and excitement and attention in the industry,” he says. “We’ll need to make sure we have enough good people in place with the experience and training to handle the work loads. We don’t want to have a marching army that’s ready to go, then all of a sudden there’s a significant delay. But we certainly are anticipating an increase in activity in the years to come.”