Rockets that push the boundaries of space travel

Friday morning at 5:24 am (0924 GMT), a rocket belonging to the US company SpaceX will take off from Florida carrying two and a half tons of NASA equipment, to dock three days later and 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth at the International Space Station.

The rocket itself is not new. He launched a NASA satellite in orbit two months ago, then landed on Earth, on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean, off Cape Canaveral.

Even the Dragon capsule, carrying the cargo and attached to the top of the rocket, was already in use, having made a mission to the ISS in 2016.

The Friday flight will be the 15th SpaceX mission for the US space agency since 2012, one of which exploded in flight. Another company, Orbital ATK, made nine supply trips, with an explosion as well.

These missions may seem routine, but they represent a revolution in space travel. Prior to SpaceX, only national governments resupplied the space station.

Today, NASA depends so much on the private sector that the US Space Agency has signed contracts with SpaceX and Boeing to send astronauts into space as soon as next year, as soon as their capsules will be ready.

NASA has been unable to send people into space since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. Space agencies around the world are buying seats on Soyuz spacecraft, which have been launched from Baikonur. , in Kazakhstan.

"The combination of government and private sector activities is unmatched," said John Logsdon, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.

American Resurgence

SpaceX, founded by Tesla CEO and space enthusiast Elon Musk, has rocked the satellite launch industry, with more than 55 launches of its Falcon 9 rocket since 2010.

Thanks to SpaceX, the United States took the lead in the world after losing ground for more than a decade in Russia and China, which launched even more rockets.

"The Russians have certainly been one of the countries that have experienced the biggest loss in terms of launch market share," said Tom Stroup, president of the Satellite Industry Association.

The number of satellite launches is expected to increase in the coming years.

Never before has the low Earth orbit been so accessible.

Miniature satellites weighing a few pounds can be made quickly and launched for tens of thousands of dollars.

These CubeSats represent 292 of the 345 satellites launched in 2017, according to the Satellite Industry Association.

"They are almost disposable," said Claude Rousseau of Northern Sky Research, explaining that their operational lifespan is about seven years and that they can be easily replaced.

In the coming months, SpaceX and the start-up OneWeb want to send into orbit constellations of hundreds of small satellites that will provide internet access.

Fierce competition in the Earth Observation market, with many companies working on constellations to offer military or civilian customers high resolution images of infrastructure, agricultural areas and military installations .

To meet the demands of the small satellite market, companies are working on smaller rockets.

One, made by the American company Rocket Lab, will attempt its first launch since New Zealand on Wednesday.

China and India, whose space programs are mainly financed by public funds, also aim to increase their market shares.

China has already launched more rockets this year than throughout the year 2017, according to Northern Sky Research.

Tourism, Moon and Mars

The era of space tourism is also approaching.

Virgin Galactic is speeding up tests for its SpaceShipTwo VSS-powered Unity, which is launched from an airplane. One seat will cost $ 250,000.

And Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, will sell tickets next year for a seat on his New Shepard spacecraft, which is designed to carry six people in space.

These two vehicles will not go into orbit around the Earth, but will allow passengers to experience spaceflight and weightlessness for several minutes before returning to Earth.

Finally, NASA is working on a space station orbiting the moon, as a starting point for missions to Mars in the coming decades.

NASA is building the Orion capsule and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to send people around the moon for the first time since 1972. The SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built by the United States. His first mission on lunar orbit is scheduled for 2020, with astronauts aboard by 2023.

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