AROUND THE WORLD 3: Space Companies Keep Dream Alive Despite Tragedy

“Now, at the dawn of the third millennium, the final frontier is finally within our reach,” says promotional material for Space Adventures, one of America’s largest pioneer companies of space tourism. “Flights are filling up at a steady pace and the demand will rise quickly in anticipation of the first launches… your reservation counts!”

Reservations for space travel? Sounds exciting. Suborbital jaunts into space could happen within a few years, said tourism companies. While a saved seat costs in the tens of thousands of dollars (Space Adventures is charging $98,000 for their first flights), the more daring dreamers could start putting money away without thinking twice.

Until the loss of the space shuttle Columbia made everyone think twice.

“Space tourism” refers to any space travel available to the general public at a fee. Recent space tourists through the Russian space program include American multimillionaire Dennis Tito and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth. Lance Bass from the pop group ‘N Sync nearly added his name to the list last year before falling a tad short of the $20 million price tag. As celebrities began paying their way to the cosmos, private entrepreneurs have begun promising the not-to-distant arrival of more affordable outings for the average citizen.

In the immediate future, this means suborbital space flight, where special reusable planes would skip out of the atmosphere into space for a limited time before being pulled back into the atmosphere by the Earth’s gravity. Private aerospace firms had said that these vehicles are being quickly developed and anticipate testing to begin over the next few years, with flights available as early as within three years, according to Jeff Greason, CEO of XCOR Aerospace. These planes could also have myriad other uses for businesses or governments, such as research, surveillance or shipping.

However, all this would seem to be threatened by this month’s shuttle disaster. In the aftermath, Russia announced that it was putting its space tourism programs on hiatus – temporarily designating the new playground for the world’s wealthiest as off-limits. Further, private aerospace engineering firms and space tourism firms operate mainly on investor funding and deposits made for prospective seat reservations. Intuition would say that the constant airing of explosion footage, such a shocking reminder of the grave risks of space travel, would have made the market for such endeavors shaken, or, at the very least skittish. But…

“I called up and spoke to all of our clients,” said Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures. “Not one canceled their plans. In fact, some seemed even more motivated.”

It seems that the Columbia tragedy has actually led to a renewed interest in the future of space; a renewed sense of challenges to meet and obstacles to overcome. Although it is still relatively early to predict long-term effects on the industry, so far, aerospace companies are not reporting loss of investment or income from consumers.

“The Columbia was tragic and everyone regrets the loss. But we view the accident as ultimately positive,” said Patrick Bahn, CEO of TGV-Rockets, an aerospace firm designing suborbital vehicles for commercial and industrial use. “It forces a re-examination of closely held assumptions about space flight. In general, this will prove to be good for investment in companies looking to the future of space vehicles.”

Bahn, and many other aerospace executives like him, believe that the accident will highlight the need for “new approaches” to space vehicles other than the basic standard shuttle designs, which are approximately 30 years old. No matter what ideas are explored, however, reentry into the atmosphere will continue to be a major challenge for all spacecraft designs.

But perhaps less of a challenge for suborbital plane designers. While the entire aerospace industry will be closely following the investigation of the Columbia, explained Greason, suborbital vehicles must deal with substantially less hazardous conditions than shuttles while reentering the atmosphere. Shuttles, and other orbital craft, reenter the atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound for up to half an hour, while the planes being currently developed would descend at three to five times the speed of sound for a few seconds.

“We’re talking about a 500 degree temperature for a second or two,” said Bahn. “That’s like reaching into the oven with an oven mitt on. It involves a whole different level of engineering.”

The less dangerous conditions under which suborbital craft must operate is one reason why investors have yet to withdraw their money from these projects, executives say. All in all, said Greason, investors were already “fully aware” of the risks involved, more so than the general public, and made their decision to invest in an “informed manner.”

“Everyone was deeply saddened,” he said. “But none of the investors seemed particularly taken aback. If anything, it gave them a new sense of why it is important to go through with this development.”

While things continue relatively unchanged in the private sector, development has taken a brief pause in the public sector. Sources from inside contracting companies working side-by-side with NASA to develop new space technology have said that they are waiting for new instruction by NASA on how to proceed. In the short-term, researchers are looking into studying new ideas of crew escape modules or pods that can be used in ascent or descent. Beyond that, employees say, it not yet known what direction NASA will take in regards to the next generation of space vehicles.

“We’re looking at some options. It’s too early to tell which of those options we will pursue,” said Kim Newton of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. “Many of our projects are proceeding as normal.”

And those waiting their chance to get into space will proceed as normal as well.

“They’re believers, and they’re passionate about space travel,” said Anderson of his clients. “This disaster has really got their emotions running… they know that the work must go on.”

While the mourning for the Columbia astronauts will continue across the nation, engineers and citizens alike are happy to report that, at the dawn of the third millennium, the final frontier remains within our reach.

Written by Chris Mincher
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire, Washington, D.C.


Write your own story telling us what you think about this article!

Read AROUND THE WORLD 1: Muslims Make Pilgrimage to Mecca