With each new President, a new administration is installed, new administrators, New direction, new priorities, and a cascade of changes within NASA and the Congress. These changes also cascade through the related industries. 1.With the current administration, Two Roads to Space have been defined – the “Low Road” (Commercial LEO), and the “High Road” Deep Space. NASA’s New Direction There are several companies focused on commercial space to Low Earth Orbit (LOE). Some of these companies include; SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp., Virgin Galactic, Orbital Sciences Corp., XCOR, Stratolifter, Bigelow Aerospace, Google ‘X’ Prize, Amazon Blue Origin, ATK, ULA, etc. 3.Some of these companies are “Public” with stocks and shareholders expecting returns on their investment. (Risk Averse) 4.Many of these companies are relatively new, run by “Private” investors or entrepreneurs (Risk Takers) and they are sometimes referred to as “The Billionairs Club”. (Analogous to the early days of flight through 1940) 5.There is a strong “NASA Connection”, to these new Commercial LOE Companies, with Space Technology support via NASA Contracts (COTS, CCDEV, CCiCap, and Astronauts, Engineers, Technicians, Mission Controllers, who are also relocating to these new companies.). Multi Media Location 6.Some Examples of the new NASA “High Road” (Deep Space) missions are; The Current Mission to Mars “Curiosity” Rover. (Which follows the highly successful Spirit and Opportunity Rovers) The DAWN Mission to the largest Asteroids Vesta and Ceres Orion Manned Capsule for Deep Space, Space Launch System (SLS) also known as the Senate Launch System. (HEAVY LIFT) Astronomy – Telescopes like Kepler and Hubble. Space Exploration – New Direction The Low Road, and the High Road
ATK – A Public Company did not get NASA Funding under CCiCap ATK Breakout Video Space Exploration – The Low Road Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Three of these companies have been selected by NASA to receive CCiCap Funding. They are; SpaceX – A Private Company Owned by Elon Musk Maker of the Falcon 9 Rocket, Dragon Space Capsule (3 Rendezvous' with ISS) SpaceX Breakout Video Boeing, CST A Public Company, maker of Aircraft, Satellites, and Other advanced systems. Their CST-100 Space Capsule, will be launched via ULA Launch Vehicles. (Also see X-37B) Boeing Breakout Video ULA Breakout Video Sierra Nevada Corp. – “Shuttle’s Little Brothers” (Dream Chaser like X-37B) – ULA Launch Vehicles Sierra Nevada Corp. Breakout Video