Space exploration: private owners or the state? Private space exploration in Russia: what domestic non-state space companies can offer

Illustration copyright AP Image caption The successes of the American private company SpaceX are an example for private space companies around the world

“I won’t pronounce this name, it’s too much, in my opinion... My day begins, continues and ends with him,” joked Roscosmos official representative Igor Burenkov, but there was a fair amount of truth in this joke. At the first conference on private space exploration, every speaker mentioned the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk.

At some point, a critical mass of mentions of this name exceeded a threshold, and it became a household word: one of the participants, discussing the problems of the industry, used it as a unit of efficiency for a private entrepreneur in space.

The famous head of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Elon Musk, is considered an example of private astronautics throughout the world.

The day after the conference began, the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a payload was scheduled.

And although there were too many doubts about the success of this test, and this project had several accidents in the past, all those present recognized that in the United States private astronautics is developing much faster.

There are private space companies in Russia, but when I asked a representative of one of them whether it was easy for them to develop, he eloquently shook his head: “Almost impossible.”

It’s unlikely that anyone would argue with this at the InSpace Forum 2016 conference either, otherwise there would be no need to assemble it.

The Russian state cosmonautics is currently undergoing a large-scale and very difficult reform.

Firstly, an economic and financial crisis began in Russia, which has already affected the financing of Roscosmos.

Secondly, the Russian state inherited the cumbersome organization of the industry from the Soviet Union. It is poorly adapted to the modern world, primarily to market conditions.

These circumstances determine the problems faced by private astronautics in Russia.

Advantages and disadvantages

Russia's lag behind the West in this area was illustrated by the very first panel discussion, which resulted in a discussion of the basics: what private astronautics essentially is, what tasks it sets for itself, and what place it can occupy in the state space industry.

For representatives of the space business themselves, defining this phenomenon does not cause any difficulties. According to the head of the Dauria Aerospace company, Sergei Ivanov, the main difference between private astronautics and state ones is the desire for commercial success.

"When talking about space, we always remember romance, politics, pride in a country, things much higher than just money. And for me, private space is about money. About making money, creating added value, return on invested capital, creating products that find their customers, about market relations,” he said.

This property of private space companies determines their strength, weakness and their relationship with the state.

The main advantage of commercial space exploration is the ability to quickly respond to market changes, new goals and technologies. A commercial company in the space industry is more free to set tasks and find ways to achieve them - the company depends on the investor.

The weaknesses of a company of this type appear for exactly the same reasons - investments in a space project can pay off after many years, and no one can provide a guarantee of success. Elon Musk's success largely depended on his personal determination and belief in success.

In Russia, as Igor Burenkov stated at the conference, such investors do not exist.

“We can talk as much as we want about various great foreign entrepreneurs, but they risk the greatest amount of money. And I don’t see anyone willing to risk that kind of money. They come to us with small machines. Nobody brings us billions,” he said.

"Space Bible"

According to a representative of Roscosmos, the agency is now more than open to cooperation, but “space businessmen” have many complaints against the state.

First of all, this concerns regulatory documents, such as “Regulations on the procedure for the creation, production and operation (use) of rocket and space complexes - Regulations RK-11 and “Regulations on licensing of space activities”.

Any spacecraft or rocket must meet the strict requirements set out in them.

As the head of the Space Policy Institute, Ivan Moiseev, told the BBC, the requirements laid down in RK-11 are designed for large spacecraft. Manufacturers of small vehicles and rockets find it difficult to comply with regulations that are not designed for them.

“Firstly, it’s even difficult for them to get this RK. Although there is nothing secret there, out of habit we put a stamp “secret” so that nothing happens. We need to turn this situation inside out, because excessive secrecy harms economic development,” - he said.

Representatives of private cosmonautics propose to rewrite the provisions of RK-11, which has already been dubbed the “space bible,” but Roscosmos answers that the agency that is engaged in fundamental reform is not able to simultaneously change the fundamental documents.

“The patient is in intensive care, he has come out of a coma, he is breathing with the help of an artificial respiration device, and then a young man appears who says: “Come on, here’s a jump rope for you and jump!” said Igor Burenkov.

Market

As Pavel Pushkin, head of the Cosmocourse company, told the BBC, the market in this area is very small.

“This share is 8-10% both here and in the United States. This share is very small, and all these small companies are starting to fight for this share,” he said.

There are several commercial satellite companies operating in Russia, including Gazprom Space Systems, Sputniks and Dauria Aerospace.

According to Pushkin, the companies are fighting for the commercial market, but at the same time they would be glad to receive government contracts.

This is normal practice for all countries, including the United States, where the largest corporations try to rely on government orders and receive government support.

However, the shape of such cooperation continues to evolve. At the conference there was a lot of talk about what it should be.

In particular, it was said that low orbit could be given to private space, leaving long-distance flights to large government agencies.

"Cosmocourse" by Pavel Pushkin, according to him, is trying to occupy a rather narrow niche in the space market. The company is developing a reusable spacecraft for tourist suborbital flights (entry into low orbit without orbiting the Earth).

Will Russia have its own SpaceX?

The Kosmokurs company has already managed to agree on the terms of reference for the creation of the spacecraft with Roscosmos, but they are not yet thinking about developing it further.

“The lack of experience is a hindrance,” its head admitted in an interview with the BBC.

This problem is perhaps the most serious in Russian private space exploration. It will take many years for a company like Elon Musk’s SpaceX to appear in Russia. SpaceX itself was founded in 2002.

In addition to all the organizational and financial problems, there is also a rather low activity of enthusiastic businessmen themselves.

President of the Moscow Space Club, full member Russian Academy cosmonautics Sergei Zhukov said that the ratio of Russian and US startups in the space field is approximately one to five hundred.

“And investment... Our oligarchs are buying Chelsea, but can you blame them? The environment is almost impossible for creating innovation,” he said.

Representative of the Roscosmos state corporation Igor Burenkov did not argue with this. According to him, the state of the private space industry reflects the general situation with business in the country.

“In our country, business is just beginning to develop, it is going through the stage of capital accumulation, no one has canceled the economic stages of development. There is nothing wrong with this, it’s just time. If someone has been doing such things for 20 years, and someone has been doing this for three hundred... But priority for the development of private initiative will still go to those who have been doing this for longer,” he said, adding: “Open trees don’t give birth to oranges.”

IN last years government space agencies different countries lost their monopoly on flights beyond Earth. Successful launches of private aircraft into orbit or suborbital space are increasingly taking place. The most famous of them, on this moment, are SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo from Virgin Galactic. The other day, the presentation of the space shuttle Dragon V2 from SpaceX also created a lot of noise. But it is far from limited to just these initiatives. history of private space exploration.

Start. OTRAG

In the nineties

In 1996, the $10 million X Prize was created for a team of designers who would fly a manned suborbital spacecraft twice within two weeks. However, it was not until October 2004 that this award was presented. It was received by the Tier One project participants who developed the SpaceShipOne shuttle. Thus began the history of Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic

In September 2004, just before the successful launch of SpaceShipOne, which led to its receipt of the X Prize, Branson said that he believed in the success of this project and would finance it in order to begin mass tourist flights into suborbital space based on this technology in the future.

With funding from Virgin Galactic, the new space shuttle SpaceShipTwo, the carrier aircraft White Knight Two, as well as the project’s own airport in the middle of the desert in New Mexico were built. The sale of tickets for suborbital flights has also begun, the cost of which starts from 100 thousand dollars.

SpaceX

SpaceX was created by the famous American businessman Elon Musk. He is one of the founders of the electronic money transfer system PayPal, as well as driving force Tesla Motors, an electric vehicle company. But private space exploration is occupying an increasingly important place in Musk’s business empire.

But SpaceX uses not an airplane, but a rocket as a carrier. At the moment, three types have been developed - Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy, and work is underway on new generations of this aircraft, which will allow it to lift even more payload.

The Falcon rocket can carry both the cargo itself and the Dragon-class space shuttle. Its first version, first launched into orbit on December 8, 2010, has proven itself successfully over the past few years. This cargo ship, operating in automatic mode, was able not only to rise to a significant height, but also to dock with the International Space Station, delivering cargo weighing up to 3.31 tons.

However, the maximum height to which the Grasshopper rocket was able to rise and then safely descend is currently 744 meters. But the technologies developed on Kuznechik are then implemented as part of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle project.

Bigelow Aerospace

Armadillo Aerospace

SkyCube

MOSCOW, 9 Feb- RIA News. Private investors around the world are increasingly investing in space projects. How Russia is involved in this is in the RIA Novosti collection.

Reusable ship

The CosmoKurs company is developing a reusable suborbital spacecraft, attracting private investment for this. The project is designed for space tourism. In the summer of 2017, the company received a license from Roscosmos to carry out space activities.

The ship will take on board six tourists who will spend 15 minutes in space, rising to an altitude of approximately 180 kilometers - it was in this orbit that Yuri Gagarin first circled the Earth. As the general director of the company, Pavel Pushkin, told RIA Novosti, it is planned to begin manufacturing the spacecraft and open bookings for space flights this year. Flight tests will begin in 2021.

Taimyr family of ultra-light missiles

The Russian company Lin Industrial is developing a family of ultra-light launch vehicles. Its general designer, Alexander Ilyin, is known as a popularizer of astronautics and the author of the "lin" blog. The company's flagship project, the Taimyr rocket, was first presented at the MAKS air show in 2015. It is designed to deliver cargo into low orbit with a payload of 10 to 180 kilograms, mainly micro- and nanosatellites (up to 10 kilograms), which are extremely popular in the world. The Taimyr family of rockets will satisfy the demand for space launches from scientific projects, as well as private companies, and, as the developers are confident, will make “space accessible to everyone.”

The story of the explosion of a rocket engine being developed by the company during testing at the end of 2016 caused a lot of noise, after which the Taimyr rocket project was significantly revised. In 2017, Lin Industrial, facing financial difficulties, joined the Galaktika group of companies, where it was involved in a new project - the development of the Theya prototype sounding rocket.

The company expects to launch the first ultra-light rocket into space in early 2020.

© Lin industrialUltralight launch vehicle "Taimyr-3-100"

© Lin industrial

Ultralight rocket for nanosatellites

A very light rocket for launching cargo weighing 1-10 kilograms into orbit is being designed by the NSTR Rocket Technologies company. Like Lean Industrial, the company intends to capture a piece of the rapidly growing market for small orbital satellites. A prototype of a rocket engine powered by a mixture of nitrous oxide and kerosene was tested a year ago. Then, in an interview with RIA Novosti, the general designer of the project, Nikolai Dzis-Voinarovsky, predicted a boom in space startups in Russia.

The NSTR Rocket Technologies company is also developing a network of robotic ground-based telescopes controlled via the Internet. The idea is that anyone can join the network and use the telescope to observe space objects.

Sea launch

The S7 space company, owned by the Russian airline of the same name, intends to carry out space launches from an offshore platform. In 2016, S7 space acquired a floating spaceport ship, built back in the 1990s for launching Ukrainian-made Zenit rockets. The company plans to make 70 commercial launches over 15 years. After 2023, it is planned to use new medium-class rockets Soyuz-5, developed by RSC Energia.

Small satellites for remote sensing

An example of a successful Russian private company that has already implemented a number of projects is Dauria Aerospace. In 2014, it successfully launched two Perseus small Earth-sensing satellites into orbit and then sold them to the Americans. A little later, the DX1 satellite was sent into orbit. Two more small spacecraft "MKA-N" N1 and N2 failed - they did not communicate after launch on July 14, 2017. Cubesats "Sputniks"

CubeSats - small satellites weighing several kilograms - are being developed by the Sputniks company, part of the Skolkovo space cluster. This is the first commercial company in Russia to successfully launch a device into orbit. Students from various Russian universities are being involved in the creation of the U family of cubesats. The company also has a nanosatellite platform - OrbiCraft-Pro.

Having chosen an educational direction in the rather varied field of private astronautics, Sputniks comes up with projects that involve schoolchildren and young people in the industry: for example, a desktop construction set with which even a child can assemble a microsatellite, or printing nanosatellites on a 3D printer directly on the ISS.

The successes of SpaceX have allowed Elon Musk’s company to constantly be in the news. However, few people know that, for example, SpaceX's main competitors - the American ULA and the French Arianespace - are also private companies.

But besides them, there are other private owners in the world with interesting projects and promising developments! In this video, we will not once again raise the topic of Musk’s brainchild. We will try to tell you about its possible partners and competitors.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has achieved significant success in private space: in just ten years, they have gone from being guys who were openly laughed at by future competitors to becoming a real monster, devouring commercial orders and carrying out almost a third of all world launches of this type. And now competitors are announcing that, “We are considering the possibility of reusing rocket stages,” they are conducting their own tests, or directly announcing plans to create new, reusable models. But since these competitors are not always large government entities, today I want to tell you about the smaller fish of commercial space - private space companies.

In this review I will omit plans that are written only on paper. Just as we prefer not to talk about Elon Musk’s ideas for colonizing Mars, I would prefer to tell you only about those companies that have built something, launched something, or at least presented working prototypes. So here we will only talk about, let’s call them that, “operating” private space companies.

To begin with, it is worth noting that companies may not be completely private. Because of this, I will split the review into two parts: first, let’s talk about those companies in which some state has a stake, and then we’ll move on to completely independent players. At the same time, keep in mind that, for example, in the USA, such players are quite supported by NASA with the help of budget money. But this is still not direct financing, but rather assistance to interesting projects, which is a common line in the budget for everyone.

Perhaps it’s worth starting with the largest players: the French company Arianespace has been on the market for almost 25 years. They recently underwent a management reformatting, so now Arianespace is part of the ArianeGroup association - together with, again, the French Airbus.

Well, I consider it partially private precisely because a third of the shares of Arianespace for a long time belonged to the state-owned French space agency. Or - the National Center for Space Research.

ArianeGroup is involved in three areas: space launches, security and defense. But we are interested in the first, the management of which is assigned to Arianespace.

In total, since the mid-80s, Arianepsace has already made 243 launches. Her Ariane 5 is considered one of the most reliable rockets in history: 81 successful launches in a row! The company has a missile fleet of three launch vehicles: the heavy Ariane 5, the light Vega and the Russian medium Soyuz. The rockets are launched from the Guiana Space Center. It's not far from Brazil, if anything. Yes, Russian engineers fly there specifically for Soyuz launches.

Currently, the company has 58 advance orders and is developing its new rocket, Ariane 6. Rumor has it that engineers are thinking about creating a separate version of Ariane 6 with the possibility of reusing the first stage. So far, there is quite a bit of information on this matter, but what is known for sure is that the rocket will be produced in two versions: logically, for lighter and heavier missions.

It is worth mentioning here the Airbus division, Airbus Defense and Space, which is engaged in the creation of commercial and military satellites. Their satellite platforms are used in orders for various devices: from small ones designed for remote sensing of the Earth to large telecommunications satellites.

One way or another, today Arianespace/ArianeGroup is one of the leaders in the global space launch market, completing more than 10 orders annually. We have many recordings of their broadcasts on our channel, and, of course, you can also watch future launches with us.

Mitsubish(с)i Heavy Industries

Let's jump to Japan. Everyone has heard about Mitsubishi. At least everyone who has seen cars of this brand. But few people know that the company is a huge association of subsidiaries. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is engaged in areas traditional for parent associations of space companies: defense, security, aircraft manufacturing, shipbuilding... But, as always, we are only interested in rockets and space trucks.

And there are already three of them in the MHI park. HII-A and H-IIB launch vehicles and transport cargo ships H-II, originally developed by the Japanese Space Agency.

As you probably know, Japan participated in the construction of the International space station: she gave me money, she spent the whole module (the biggest one, by the way). It's called kibo, or “hope” in our language. So, since 2009, they have also been sending trucks to the ISS, on average one per year, and launches are already planned until 2019.

If we return to missiles, then here with the Japanese everything is somehow very… Japanese. Not in the sense that it is stubborn and incomprehensible, but in the sense that it is clear and sharpened: their first H-I successfully completed 9 launches since 1986, it was replaced by H-II, which sent 5 missions into orbit, which after the first serious failure was sent for revision. And finally, the modifications that followed, H-IIA and H-IIB, together made 40 launches, plus one failure. It is noteworthy that the H-IIB was developed precisely as an even more reliable version of the H-IIA to launch trucks to the ISS. And so far she has only worked on trucks.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is currently working on the next generation of the Launch Vehicle, you'll never guess what it will be called. Okay, yes, H-III: the first launch is scheduled for 2020, and entry into service, if successful, is planned for 2021.

The fact that Mitsubishi's launch vehicle and spacecraft development is paid for by the Japanese government prevents me from including it as a completely independent player.

Orbital ATK

From Japan we smoothly move to America, where we try almost until the end of this review. For starters, in Dulles, Virginia. This is where the former Orbital Sciences Corporation, now known as Orbital ATK, is headquartered. The renaming took place after a merger with another large American private company - Alliant Techsystems, which gave the company the abbreviation ATK. It would be logical to split our story in two, so I’ll start with Alliant Techsystems.

This company is a true veteran of space development. They collaborated with other giants like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and scientists, creating more than 10,000 parts for the James Webb Telescope, and even developing solar panels for the InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year.

Their GEM solid rocket boosters are installed on the Delta II and Delta IV rockets, and right now, as part of Orbital ATK, they are working on components of the future super-heavy launch vehicle Space Launch System, the first test launch of which is expected in 2019.

As you can see, ATK mainly dealt with rather narrow-profile orders: to assemble a motor here, to screw a solar panel here - simple, high-quality, but small. It was the merger with Orbital in 2015 that allowed the company to get a permanent customer in the form of itself, and Orbital to get rid of the need to constantly enter into contracts with contractors, now using its Alliant Techsystems production facilities.

The history of Orbital is no less rich than that of SpaceX: its own, albeit built with money from the US defense industry, the small Minotaur rocket launched from a Pegasus aircraft, the lightweight Antares, designed to launch its own Cygnus trucks to the ISS. Participation in the state CRS program for the commercial supply of the station, where Orbital has already won twice and received much-needed private contracts. And if SpaceX, in addition to launches to the ISS, was able to actively engage in the development of commercial launches on the heavy Falcon 9, then Orbital is doing worse: Antares flies only with Cygnus, Minotaurs - exclusively in the interests of the US Air Force. And in 27 years, a little less than forty Pegasus were launched.

But, to be honest, Orbital ATK does not pretend to do much: the company exists precisely for the sake of working on US government programs, the merger of its two constituent manufacturers has made it possible to significantly simplify organizational matters, and consistent participation in scientific missions such as work on future telescopes and interplanetary probes suggests that the state will continue to use the services of Orbital ATK's reliable engineers.

Well, now let’s move on to completely private space companies.

Completely private companies

United Launch Alliance

As in the case of conventional private companies, we start with a real giant of the space industry: the merger of two American companies, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. I will deliberately not devote too much attention to ULA, because if we separately consider the successes and work of its constituent companies, I will have to make a separate video, perhaps more than one. My goal is to tell you about smaller market players.

However, I just can't help but mention that before the merger; Boeing, for example, participated in the development of the legendary Saturn V launch vehicle, which carried American astronauts to the Moon. She created a lunar all-terrain vehicle, which successfully carried the same astronauts on the satellite. The upper stage, which was used to launch spacecraft using the Space Shuttle. Launch vehicles Delta II, Delta III and Delta IV, in partnership with McDonnel Douglas. The X-37B spaceships fly in orbit in fully autonomous mode for three years, carrying out a mysterious mission commissioned by the US Air Force. Spacecraft Surveyor, Mariner-10, Curiosity, in the end! And I haven’t yet mentioned my active participation in the development of the International Space Station and the Unity and Destiny modules built for it. In general, since the beginning of active space exploration by the Americans, the private Boeing, better known in the world for its aircraft, has successfully assisted NASA in almost all key missions. Let's not forget about the platforms for commercial telecommunications satellites, which are used by broadcasters along with the previously mentioned platform from Airbus Defense and Space.

Lockheed Martin has an equally impressive track record: working on the Atlas family of launch vehicles since its second version (at that time it was handled by General Dynamics, whose division was later sold to Lockheed). Interplanetary missions to the Moon and Mars: MAVEN, Juno, OSIRIS-REx, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: devices that are now in the news. Spitzer and Hubble telescopes. Even the GPS program that we all use was developed by Lockheed Martin.

In general, everything is clear here without additional explanation: ULA, one way or another, bears the majority of historical research missions, including interplanetary ones. Today they carry out about ten launches a year (and the number of planned ones has decreased by almost a third after SpaceX received permission to carry out government launches), the company is also losing private orders, but it is foolish to think that they will give up all their markets without a fight. The main problem here is different - over decades of de facto monopoly, United Launch Alliance has become a clumsy and extremely bureaucratic company, in many ways similar to other state-owned ones.

ULA's current rocket fleet consists of two families of launch vehicles: Atlas and Delta. Work is underway on a partially reusable Vulcan, and the company is also involved in the development of the Space Launch System. Well, I can’t help but remember the Orion manned spacecraft: they should go to the ISS before 2021. Moreover, in December next year A test of the manned CST-100 Starliner, which is produced by Boeing outside of ULA, is expected.

Again, we should not forget that NASA is giving away near-Earth space to newcomers in the space industry, and ULA continues to receive contracts for the assembly and launch of interplanetary spacecraft, at least by inertia. The rest, apparently, have not yet “grown up.”

Bigelow aerospace

Speaking about ULA's plans, one cannot help but recall another private American company - Bigelow Aerospace. Yes, we will periodically move away from rocket technology to talk about other areas in space. It is the brainchild of Robert Bigelow (which the billionaire modestly named after himself) that is working on interesting, deployable space modules, one of which ULA and Bigelow aerospace are going to launch to the Moon in the early 2020s.

In the press, such modules are often called “inflatable”, which is incorrect. The design of an expandable room involves its deployment, this process is somewhat similar to the unfolding of a tourist tent. You're not inflating a tent, are you?

In general, since the company's founding in 1999, Bigelow aerospace has been actively inventing new space modules: they conducted two successful tests of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 single chambers in 2006 and 2007, and then began designing a full-fledged BEAM module for International Space Station.

The company's persistence (and success) convinced NASA to at least give Bigelow Aerospace a chance, and a contract was signed in 2012. The company joined forces with Sierra Nevada Corporation, which we will talk about later today, and completed the creation of the module within three years. It was docked to the Tranquility module of the ISS in test mode (that is, it was hermetically sealed, and the cosmonaut team opened it several times a year and took measurements), but two years later, when the reliability of the design and materials was confirmed, it was decided to leave BEAM orbit and used as a spare warehouse, which made it possible to free up several racks at the station itself for equipment for scientific experiments.

And if BEAM itself is quite small: about 16 cubic meters in volume, then the new developments of Bigelow Aerospace look much... larger. First, we are talking about the A330 and B330 modules, each of which is about a third in volume of the International Space Station, and inside is more reminiscent of the American Skylab: a large hollow space with rod-shaped instruments inside. Secondly, it is impossible not to mention the Bigelow commercial space station project, which will be assembled from just such B330 and small Sundancer modules, which will most likely be used as gateways and docking nodes. The launch is tentatively scheduled for 2020, although delays in test manned flights of SpaceX Crew Dragon and Starliner, produced by Bigelow and Boeing, may push this date forward by 2-3 years. In any case, the project of a private commercial space station is very ambitious, although even today Bigelow has everything it needs to implement this idea. True, there is nothing yet to transport staff and tourists to this space hotel. So we are waiting: in the next year and a half, plans and dates should become significantly clearer.

Blue Origin

A company that is often compared in the press to SpaceX, although, perhaps, they do not have much in common. In any case, this was the case until recently, when Blue Origin, founded by the owner of the Amazon online store, Jeff Bezos, announced the development of its own reusable launch vehicle with its own BE-4 engines.

But if we talk about what Blue Origin has now, we will only find the New Shepard suborbital single-stage rocket and a small capsule ship of the same name. All this beauty should serve the interests of the space tourist, allowing people with wide and full pockets to fly into space for a few minutes and then return to Earth. We watched the New Shepard tests in live: It looks beautiful, of course, but is more of a pampering activity. Although I also don’t want to downplay the successes of the private company’s engineers.

New Glenn is of much greater interest, especially considering that the ubiquitous United Launch Alliance is involved in the development of the BE-4 methane engine. Already, Blue Origin has rented the LC-36 site at the Space Center. Kennedy (the one in Cape Canaveral) and is gradually preparing the infrastructure for launching a future rocket. The availability of commercial contracts for the first launches is also encouraging: Eutelsat and OneWeb have already bought space on New Glenn for their satellites.

In general, Blue Origin quite successfully got into the program of replacing Russian rocket technologies in the United States: the development of BE-4 was carried out even before the signing of final contracts with the United Launch Alliance, and the presence of an already operating system in the form of New Shepard allowed it to attract additional attention. We can only wait for the beginning of the 2020s: that’s when Vulcan should definitely fly, and testing of the New Glenn rocket will just begin. Most likely, Blue Origin will become the first company after SpaceX capable of fully reusing the first stages of its launch vehicles.

Vector Space Systems

The market for commercial launches is gradually growing, that’s all more companies can afford their own small satellites in orbit, and the miniaturization of technology allows these satellites to be made much more compact than 5-6 years ago. It is logical that in such conditions companies appear that want to provide the opportunity to launch a small spacecraft into orbit at a reasonable price. Vector Space Systems is just one such company.

Its founder, Jim Cantrell, helped Elon Musk launch SpaceX, but soon left the company, believing that it would not be profitable. As the years passed, SpaceX captured the market, and Jim (probably) counted the lost profits. And he got to the point that in 2016 he founded his own private space company: Vector Space Systems. A few months later, already in 2017, he carried out the first test launch of the ultra-light Vector-R launch vehicle, developed by Garvey Space Systems, which Vector absorbed literally immediately after its founding.

One way or another, VSS now already has a contract to launch six satellites weighing up to 50 kilograms (that’s how much the rocket can launch into low Earth orbit), and is preparing to refurbish launch pad number 46 at the same Space Center. Kennedy at Cape Canaveral, and is actively trying to get permission from the US authorities to launch ultra-light rockets from mobile launch platforms, literally from large trucks. In parallel, work is underway to create our own small spaceports and the possibility of using floating barges for launches from the ocean. But warm and luminous launches from a forest clearing will always remain in our hearts.

Rocket Lab

You may have noticed that we are moving from large and well-known companies to newcomers in the space industry. From, ahem, large rockets to ultralight ones. And it is with a small private launch operator that we close today’s topic of rockets.

Rocket Lab, another relative peer of SpaceX and Blue Origin, was founded in 2006. The company is notable for the fact that, despite its “registration” in the United States, it uses a private spaceport located all the way in New Zealand.

This year, 2017, tests of our own Electron launch vehicle began. The first launch was not successful, but the second launch is planned to attempt to launch four nanosatellites into orbit. If everything goes well, the company’s Moon Express spacecraft should be launched to the Moon in 2018 - this will happen as part of the Google Lunar XPrize competition. By the way, write in the comments if you are interested in the topic of the lunar competition from Google, if there are many people interested, we will make a separate video about it.

In general, so far Rocket Lab cannot boast of great achievements, but it will become known in the near future further fate companies. We include it in this list primarily due to its existing developments, its own cosmodrome, and the ability to already launch rockets.

Virgin Galactic

Following the names of Elon Musk and Jeffrey Bezos, you can often hear the name of Richard Branson. Yes, this is another billionaire who decided to make money in space. Well, to be more precise, on suborbital flights.

Founded by Branson in 2004, Virgin Galactic already has its own spaceport and two suborbital spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, and, guess what, SpaceShipTwo.

I really doubted whether to include Virgin Galactic in this list, because the flights of their ships are carried out to an altitude of about 100 kilometers, and the pilots are not formally considered astronauts... Again, rockets are not used here, the first escape velocity is not achieved - the flight takes place along a parabolic trajectory - spaceships are more like high-flying airplanes. But still, Branson’s brainchild deserves our attention with its plans to make regular suborbital tourist flights, a kind of space tourism on the Blue Origin level.

It is worth mentioning that during testing of the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft in 2014, one of the pilots died as a result of an accident, which significantly slowed down development. But by the end of 2016, the company was able to recover from the consequences of the tragedy and successfully tested a new ship of the same model - VSS Unity.

Well, it won’t hurt to know that Virgin Galactic includes the company Scaled Composites, which designed both ships. By the way, she, together with Orbital, already known to you, worked on the Pegasus launch vehicle, the one that is launched from an airplane. Well, she also had a hand in the mysterious X-37 rocket plane.

Overall, Virgin Galactic certainly deserves a place on the list of suborbital carriers. But its place on our list, rather, was ensured by the presence of its own spaceport. And the absence of any government money in principle.

Sierra Nevada Corporation

The name of this company has already been heard today in the context of collaboration with Bigelow on the expandable BEAM module. Sierra Nevada Corporation. A large-scale private American space company with representative offices in the UK, Germany and Turkey.

Founded back in 1963, SNCorp has long been developing various electronic systems for the defense industry, such as training stands, virtual shooting ranges, and the like. But I began to study space seriously in the mid-2000s. To be completely precise - since the acquisition of SpaceDev. The latter also has a rather interesting history: engineers developed a device for a mission to study one of the near-Earth asteroids, tried to fit into a flight to Pluto, even helped Scaled Composites (well, the one that is now in Virgin Galactic) with engines for SpaceShipOne.

However, we are interested in the history of both companies right from the moment of their merger: it was then that work began on the DreamChaser spacecraft. There is a rather complicated situation with participation in the NASA competition for commercial manned spacecraft, the death of the director of SpaceDev, James Banson, who left his post after losing this competition... Then repeated participation, the first money received, again “flying” past the contract... But the most important thing is that in In the end, the persistence of Sierra Nevada Corporation did bear fruit: the company received funding from NASA to develop its own ship.

Externally, DreamChaser is a bit reminiscent of SpaceShuttle, being three times smaller in size. The ship is a transport and cargo ship, unmanned, although development of a manned version is still underway. There is even consideration of sending a service team to carry out technical work on the Hubble telescope in the mid-2020s.

It turns out that SNCorp became the only company after SpaceX and Orbital ATK that received permission from the US authorities to fly to the ISS. The first launches of DreamChaser on an Atlas V launch vehicle are expected in 2019, and final checks and tests of the system are now underway.

By the way, the UN also wants to use the ship’s services, as part of a program that should allow UN member countries that do not have the ability to independently launch missions into space to conduct experiments in the DreamChaser cabin in zero-gravity conditions. But such missions are unlikely to begin before the dream chaser has proven his reliability.

Sierra Nevada also tied itself with the US Department of Defense with a contract to create a new generation of satellites, but, as always, there are few details here.

And again I have to end the story about yet another private owner with the words “there are a couple of years left to wait.” We wait!

Masten Space Systems

It's time to move on to very small companies. Masten Space Systems is a space, or rather rocket, company based in the Mojave Desert in California. Since 2005, she has been desperately trying to win some kind of competition, to get at least a small contract, but so far the company has not been awarded the jackpot prize. However, MSS has prototypes and even working samples, so it would be rude of me not to include it in this list.

The main area of ​​work is vertical take-off and landing systems: those that can be useful both in the operation of interplanetary missions (landing modules, for example), and in the development of future reusable launch vehicles. The most promising development is Xeus, a lunar lander that has been improved several times, pre-approved by NASA as a possible prototype for a manned lander, and even taken under the wing of ULA: the latter want to try to install their own stage from the future Vulcan rocket on Xeus.

In general, now the situation with Masten Space Systems is reminiscent of Orbital or the same ATK at the very beginning of their development: a small company with promising developments, in which serious players are just beginning to become interested, including in the form of the state. We'll keep an eye on it!

Moon Express

Here we come to the last company in today's review. I will allow myself the audacity to ask you to like this video, of course, only if you really liked the video. And to remind you that such videos come out thanks to the guys who support us on The Patreon. The link to it will be in the description, so if you want to join them, please - we will be very glad!

Well, for now let's move on to Moon Express.

The history of this company is quite interesting: it was founded by several entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, they immediately managed to reach some agreements with NASA, and the main direction of work was the extraction of resources beyond the Earth. First of all, on the Moon.

With this set of initial data, Moon Express begins its journey to participate in the Google Lunar XPrize competition, while simultaneously launching other promising and interesting projects from a technical point of view, such as a lunar telescope the size of a shoebox. Gets into a couple of programs from the same NASA: first of all, Lunar CATALYST, which, by the way, includes our previous heroine, Masten Space Systems... Finally, in 2016, it receives for use two launch complexes at the Kennedy Space Center, 16th and 17th, and a year later becomes the first private space company in history to receive permission to explore the surface of the Moon.

In 2017, Google fully paid for the ticket to our satellite for Moon Express on the Electron rocket, which we talked about a little earlier, and now the only thing left to do is deliver the MX-1 lander with thirty kilograms of payload to the Moon.

The company also has further plans: if the planned mission is successful, they will receive a prize from Google of $20 million: this will allow them to develop the MX-1 platform. First, install an additional engine on it and increase capacity. Then - increase the possible payload mass to 150 kilograms. Well, in the final version, MX-9, with a capacity of 500 kilograms, it will be possible to return samples from the Moon to Earth.

Of all the future dates I announced today, the closest ones are the launches of Electron with a test load and with the Moon Express device. So we will definitely show you and tell you about these events in more detail.

As you can see, almost all active private space is concentrated in the United States. Of course, there are small German, Italian, Indian, Russian companies, however, as I said at the beginning of the video, today I would like to discuss only more or less major players: those who already have something to show, something to launch, something to surprise. Not all of the companies announced today compete with each other, but many, as you already understand, on the contrary, cooperate closely.

It is cooperation, bold ideas and government support that are the real engine of space progress today. It is private space companies that make it possible to reduce the cost of launching spacecraft; the spacecraft themselves are developing ambitious missions to explore the Moon, Mars and other planets of the solar system.

And we believe that we are now on the threshold of a great future. A future in which space will become close and accessible, and people will finally take their eyes off our tiny planet and look up.

Alpha Centauri will try to be a kind of information telescope for you. Alas, we will not be able to bring the stars closer to you. But we can bring you closer to the stars.

Today we will talk about how a private American company SpaceX, founded in 2002, quickly has become a serious player in the space market. In just a few years it could become the main competitor to Roscosmos.

Base

SpaceX was founded in 2002 by a then largely unknown businessman. By that time, he was known as one of the founders of the electronic payment system PayPal.

Having received 165 million US dollars after the sale of PayPal, he invested this money in the creation of a private space company, the final goal of which should be flights to Mars. But this is in the future, and first we had to start launching vehicles into Earth orbit.

SpaceX decided to use reusable spacecraft as the basis for its activities. This should significantly reduce the cost of delivering cargo into orbit.

It is interesting that Elon Musk initially planned to use American and Russian rockets for his own purposes, but over time he came to the conclusion that it was necessary to develop his own innovative spacecraft.

Falcon 1 rocket

Investors who were eyeing the ambitious company lost interest in it, and Elon Musk’s personal funds were rapidly running out.

And then Musk decided to go all-in. Literally two months after the third Falcon 1 crash, on September 28, 2008, the fourth rocket launch was carried out, which turned out to be successful. At the same time, the director of SpaceX himself claims that if this launch failed, the company would cease to exist.

On July 13, 2009, the fifth Falcon 1 rocket successfully launched into space. It delivered the Malaysian RazakSAT satellite into Earth orbit.

Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy

SpaceX is currently developing the Falcon Heavy spacecraft, which will become the most powerful launch vehicle in history. With a launch weight of 1463 tons, it will be able to carry up to 53 tons of payload. It is expected that with the help of these rockets SpaceX will carry out its missions to Mars.

Space shuttles Dragon and Dragon V2

The Dragon shuttle can dock with the International Space Station. At the moment (May 25, 2015), seven successful dockings of this kind have already been carried out, six of which were commercial.

Dragon V2 is a new, improved version of SpaceX's Dragon space shuttle. It differs from its predecessor in that it is also designed to transport living people (up to seven people per launch). And this requires completely new technologies to ensure flight safety.

The Dragon V2's first unmanned flight into orbit is expected to take place in December 2016, with a crewed launch planned for April 2017.

Current projects

NASA sees SpaceX as its hope for the continued operation of the International Space Station. Indeed, in 2014, Russia announced its gradual withdrawal from the ISS project, and therefore there may be no one to deliver payloads and astronauts to the orbital station in a few years.

SpaceX Success Factors

Among the main success factors, experts highlight the following points:

1. The private nature of SpaceX.
The experience of the last decade has shown that business at almost all levels is a much more effective owner than government agencies. This also applies to the space industry.

The private company SpaceX is much more focused on achieving the final result as quickly and cheaply as possible than the government agency NASA. The latter has been repeatedly criticized for bloated budgets created solely for their development.

2. Low cost of space flights
From the very beginning of its existence, SpaceX planned to use reusable spacecraft. This will reduce the cost of each launch by almost half.

Also, the cost of space flights is greatly influenced by the small number of employees at SpaceX. At the moment, it amounts to three and a half thousand people. For comparison, NASA has more than 18 thousand employees.

3. Innovation
SpaceX sees its success in the maximum implementation of innovative technologies. A private company has the opportunity to attract the best specialists in the world in certain fields of activity for cooperation. Working for Elon Musk's company is a dream for millions of engineers, programmers and administrators. All of them are aimed at success, at the most rapid and limitless development.

The Elon Musk factor

Future projects

Musk dreams of a permanently inhabited colony on Mars, entire cities with a population of millions of people. The Red Planet could become a new home for Humanity if something happens to Earth in the future.

Laying the groundwork for the future SpaceX cosmodrome

Finance

Musk promises that SpaceX will enter the securities market only after the full-fledged process of Mars exploration begins. And this will not happen earlier than in ten years.

Financial analysts estimate SpaceX's current capitalization at $4-5 billion. At the same time, the company's revenue for 2012 amounted to about 400 million, and for 2013 - already 634 million. But in the future, when flights to the Red Planet become a reality, the price of SpaceX may jump tens of times. It is clear why the investors of this company are in no hurry to let anyone else approach it.

Criticism

Some people think it's a big soap bubble. Indeed, at the moment, the cost of sending one kilogram of payload using SpaceX rockets does not differ significantly from the prices of Roscosmos and other space operators.

Critics note that American government through NASA, he recklessly pours hundreds of millions of dollars into SpaceX, as if it were not a private, but a public company. In addition, thanks to his cooperation with the authorities, Musk receives significant preferences for other areas of his business.

In any case, SpaceX is opening new horizons for Humanity. In the person of this company, in just over ten years, Roscosmos and other “old” players in the space market have acquired a promising competitor. At the same time, his successes become greater and more noticeable every year, even with every new month.

In addition, the successes of SpaceX and Elon Musk are a clear example for other businessmen who are also thinking about the opportunity.