1. Commercial Spaceflight Opportunities for UK Education & Training Commercial Spaceflight Opportunities for UK Education & Training J. Duncan Law-Green Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Univ. of Leicester

2. Commercial Spaceflight Spurred by successful flight of SpaceShipOne in 2004 More than a dozen companies working on manned & unmanned suborbital systems Four companies working with NASA on commercial manned orbital, launch by 2009-10 Commercial space station by 2010 (Bigelow Aerospace)

3. Active Duty Astronauts by Agency ESA Virgin Galactic RSA NASA

4. Virgin Galactic Constructing fleet of 5 spaceplanes, 2 carrier aircraft Co-founder of Spaceport America, $225M project for world’s first passenger spaceport. 100 test flights scheduled 2008/9. First commercial flight late 2009. May also launch from Sweden (Kiruna) and Scotland (Lossiemouth).

5. Commercial Spaceflight: Rapid Development cycles 20 years6 months Huygens Pixel

6. Commercial Spaceflight: Small engineering teams Image © Armadillo Aerospace Inc.

7. Commercial Spaceflight: Competitive Image © Rocket Racing League

8. HighJump: Suborbital payloads for schools Make use of new cheap, reusable suborbital launchers (e.g. Masten XA-1.0) Launch large numbers (hundreds) of small “CanSat” payloads built by school/college students. Thousands of young people gain experience designing & operating space systems Corporate sponsorship opportunities Artist’s impression: Masten XA-1.0

9. Teachers in Space Recruit several UK science teachers to undergo abbreviated form of astronaut training Culminates in suborbital flight with commercial provider (e.g. Virgin Galactic) Launch providers may give educational flights free of charge Similar program already exists in US

10. Conclusion The Revolution is Coming! Commercial spaceflight will show that space development can be exciting, challenging, profitable and fun.