International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight: The Failure of Soyuz in Russia

The spacecraft and the crew had to go to the International Space Station, where there are currently three people. The station operates about 240 miles above the surface of the Earth in what is known as a low Earth orbit.

At present, Soyuz missions are the only means of passenger transport to the US space station. NASA, through its Crew Commercial program, is now encouraging private companies to develop rockets and spacecraft. Boeing and SpaceX are these companies. They are late but are making progress.

In the context of Thursday's aborted Soyuz mission, Benji Reed, director of SpaceX's commercial crew program, said he was considering the possibility for the company to accelerate the development of its vehicles. Although this could potentially hire more people or make people work longer, no short cuts can be made in the process. Each stage of development has yet to be completed and all the security criteria met, he said.

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"You still have to do the same job," he told symposium participants at this week's Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in New Mexico.

Reed said testing, training and safety were now at the heart of SpaceX's vehicle system.

A Boeing official said vehicle safety was a critical part of its development.

Kathy Launders, NASA's Commercial Team Program Manager, said she fully understands the urgency of the next generation of spacecraft.

"We feel every week how important it is to provide services to the International Space Station," she said.

Overall, the goal of NASA's program is to stimulate innovation allowing the private sector to provide space transportation primarily, Launders said. And until now, it works, she says.

Recycling junk food

A representative of a company called NanoRacks mentioned a number of initiatives undertaken.

This includes the transport of small satellites – many of which contain scientific experiments – in space vehicles of other companies and the development of plans for the reuse of space wastes already in orbit for the construction of new private space stations.

This contrasts with the government-owned International Space Station.

"We hope to reduce, recycle and reuse waste from space," said Mike Lewis, chief technology officer at NanoRacks.

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Brian Barnett, founder and CEO of Solstar Space Company, participates in the hearing of the International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight on Thursday, October 11, 2018. (Photo: Josh Bachman / Sun-News)

Internet in the space

A neo-Mexican company known as Solstar is working to develop Internet access in space.

Brian Barnett, CEO and founder of Solstar, said the company was looking to develop WiFi capabilities for spacecraft, such as New Shepard from Blue Origin. People are used to taking pictures and posting them on social media, he said, and should be able to do so on space tourism flights.

"We think it should be as easy to communicate here as there," he told symposium participants.

Colorado spaceport

A Colorado Air and Space Port official pointed to the recent success of this installation in obtaining a federal license for its spaceport.

He became the 11th licensed spaceport of the country. Of these, six – including the Colorado facility – are aeronautical and space facilities.

Although he has obtained a license, there is currently no spaceflight vehicle technically capable of taking off from this facility, Ruppel said. Vehicles that take off horizontally but land like gliders are not compatible with the installation, he said. The landing should rather be fueled, as for ordinary airplanes.

He felt that it would take 8 to 10 years before such a vehicle exists. But with Colorado being a major aerospace hub, he said there was still a lot of work to be done in the meantime.

"I think the short term is focused on business development," he said.

By comparison, the Virgin Galctic spacecraft system, which is scheduled to launch from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, is based on a horizontal take-off and a glider landing.

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Ruppel said he did not believe that the Colorado spaceport would be a god worthy of being tested and evaluated, much like Spaceport America. But he said that every installation has its place.

"We can not all do the same thing," he said. "It's true for airports, and certainly for spaceport."