1. Commercial Human Space Systems Overview
Aerospace Engineering
© 2011 Project Lead The Way, Inc.

2. Commercial Human Space Overview
Spaceflight: Orbital and Suborbital
History of Commercial Human Spaceflight

3. Spaceflight: Orbital and Suborbital
Presentation Name
Spaceflight: Orbital and Suborbital
Course Name
Unit # – Lesson #.# – Lesson Name
Spaceflight is above 62 miles of altitude
Orbital spaceflight achieves altitude and speed to remain in orbit
Suborbital spaceflight does not maintain orbit
Typically short-duration flight
Take off and land at same location
Cannot reach ISS
ISS is the ancroynm for International Space Station.

4. Human Spaceflight Introduction
First manned spaceflight in early 1960s
Space travel was only done through government organizations for first 40 years
Since year 2000 government budget changes and technological innovations provided an environment for private industry to enter space
Trend is that this is a legitimate industry
Major goal is to reduce cost for access to space while improving safety and reliability

5. Human Spaceflight Timeline
1961
1969
1982
1996
2004
2017
1961 to 1999
Human space by governments only
First manned spaceflight
Man walks on moon
First space shuttle flight
1996 to 2004
Successful commercial spaceflight
Ansari XPRIZE launched
6/ First commercial manned spaceflight
10/ Mojave Aerospace Ventures wins Ansari XPRIZE.
2004 onward
Start of commercial spaceflights
Engineering development of SS2 starts
7/ First mothership for Virgin Galactic delivered

6. First Commercial Human Spaceflight
Call to action was initiated by Dr. Peter Diamondis through the formation of the XPRIZE Foundation in 1996
Ansari XPRIZE sparked development with $10M prize
26 teams competed
Mojave Aerospace Ventures including Scaled Composites in Mojave, CA flew successful flight test on June 21, 2004
Official record set and Ansari XPRIZE awarded on October 4, 2004

7. First Commercial Human Spaceflight
SpaceShip One was first spacecraft to successfully achieve suborbital manned spaceflight as a private company without government funding or support

8. First Commercial Human Spaceflight
Mothership named White Knight lifted spacecraft to 50,000 feet which is above 80% of the atmosphere

10. First Commercial Human Spaceflight Major Contributors
Dr. Peter Diamondis: XPRIZE Foundation
Scaled Composites, LLC
Burt Rutan: President and chief Engineer at Scaled Composites
Sir Richard Branson: Founder of Virgin Group
in UK, became first entrepreneur to take this
new technology to a commercial application
with launch of Virgin Galactic

11. Human Spaceflight Innovation
Initial development was for glider flight test, with concurrent control and propulsion system certification
SpaceShip 1 configuration that won the Ansari XPRIZE designed to carry 3 passengers
Next version, SpaceShip 2, designed to carry six passengers
Continuing to refine systems to improve safety and allow longer sub-orbital flights

12. Virgin Galactic
Technology developed for Ansari XPRIZE used to start Virgin Galactic in New Mexico in 2004
Focused on space tourism
Continuing to develop the technology before the first commercial flight

13. Shuttle Replacement
Retirement of shuttle program in 2011 created need for new spacecraft to support ISS

14. Commercial Human Orbital Flight Providers
Russians currently selling seats onboard Soyuz
Cost per person is multiple millions
Several days on ISS

15. SpaceX
SpaceX developing spacecraft and Rockets

16. SpaceX
SpaceX developing reusable rockets for lower operating costs

17. SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft
Presentation Name
Course Name
Unit # – Lesson #.# – Lesson Name
SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft
SpaceX developed Dragon spacecraft to travel to ISS Cargo successfully delivered to ISS in 2012 Human delivery to ISS planned for future
More information available at

18. Boeing Orion Spacecraft
Boeing developing for NASA Spacecraft for astronauts

19. Presentation Name
Course Name
Unit # – Lesson #.# – Lesson Name
Orbital ATK Inc. Cygnus
Cargo and human delivery for the International Space Station since 2013
More information available at

20. Commercial Human Space Summary
Next 20 years will bring major changes as commercial organizations work to access space
Major goal is to reduce cost for access to space while improving safety and reliability
Similar situation to what commercial airline industry faced in 1930s
Potential for significant number of jobs in aerospace provided by these companies

21. Write a 1-page handwritten paper in the future of Commercial Space Travel.

22. References
NASA (2017). What is orion? Retrieved from Scaled Composites, LLC (2011). About us. Retrieved from SpaceX Exploration Technologies, Corp (2017). Company. Retrieved from SpaceX Exploration Technologies, Corp (2017). Media. Retrieved from Virgin Galactic (2011). Company. Retrieved from