With the U.S. space-shuttle program over, companies and governments are rushing to privatize travel into the cosmos. This spring, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, launched a capsule that docked with the International Space Station -- the first commercial space vehicle to do so.
In the desert of New Mexico, Virgin Galactic is preparing for the first suborbital space flights for paying customers, with actor Ashton Kutcher one of the latest to sign up for the privilege. In Huntsville, Alabama, Stratolaunch Systems Inc. is busy dismantling Boeing 747s, hoping to use their engines and other systems to build the world’s largest plane, which will help propel a new spacecraft into flight.
All three projects have wealthy entrepreneurs backing them: PayPal Inc. co-founder Elon Musk is the head of SpaceX, U.K. billionaire Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of Virgin Group Ltd., and Paul G. Allen, the co- founder of Microsoft Corp., started Stratolaunch last year.
The three men might not know it, but they’re following in a grand tradition of private wealth furthering advances in rocketry and space exploration.
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