It would be pretty impressive if you somehow missed the news over this last weekend about
the successful SpaceX / NASA launch to the International Space Station.
Some of you may be wondering though, what is so significant about this?
We’ve been sending humans to space for a long time, and this trip isn’t even to anywhere
far away.
The ISS is only a few hundred kilometres above the surface of the Earth, after all.
Well, there’s a couple of things that make this exciting for space exploration and space
travel in general.
The obvious one, the one everyone has been talking about with every given opportunity,
is that this marks the first time astronauts have lifted off from American soil since 2011,
since the discontinuation of the Space Shuttle program.
This is significant, because it means the US is really back in the game now.
During this gap between the end of the Space Shuttle program and today, only the Russians
had capabilities to send astronauts to space.
Every launch went via them and their Soyuz rocket, costing the US an estimated $86 million
per seat.
Russia have put their price up over this last decade, perhaps cashing in on the fact they
had a monopoly on the market.
The lowest NASA paid Russia was $21.8 million per seat back in 2007, and the design of the
Soyuz hasn’t really changed since then.
Which brings us on to the second most significant part of this mission.
NASA has commissioned private contractors to build the next generation of manned launch
vehicles and capsules.
The idea is that having some competition in this market will be a good thing for bringing
prices down.
So, while the Russians have been charging $86 million per seat, SpaceX, on the other
hand, will be charging about $55 million per seat initially.
As more orders come in, they expect to be able to reduce this price tag down further
to the $10-20 million mark.
SpaceX can go so low because they utilise reusable boosters, which should reduce their
overall cost considerably.
Another of the contractors, Boeing, are also testing their own launch vehicle and capsule,
although their price per seat will be considerably higher initially at $90 million.
SpaceX has had a big head start, they have been flying robotic cargo missions to the
ISS since 2012, which has meant Boeing has been playing catch-up to match a similar launch
schedule to SpaceX.
With time though, those costs should also be reduced.
This competition in the industry is good, because cheaper manned missions to space should
mean a greater capacity for more missions in the future, which is great news for space
enthusiasts.
To give you some comparison about the costs involved with space travel, NASA is still
working on their own launch vehicle called the SLS.
This will be more than just a taxi service for astronauts, it’s designed to shift a
serious amount of cargo far out into our solar system too.
However, if you include all the R&D costs into each of its expected flights, we are
looking at over $2 billion dollars per launch, compared to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, which
Elon Musk claims would only cost NASA $150 million per launch.
Now, SLS would get a little less than twice the amount of cargo to low earth orbit, 130
tonnes compared to Falcon Heavy’s 70 tonnes, however we are seeing signs already that maybe
the private sector can do it better.
We are still in early days yet, in the coming years seeing the reliability of all the craft
will be one of the most important factors to decide whether one way or another is the
most successful path or not, but the fact that there are now options will be crucially
important for the future of space flight.
So, well done SpaceX and NASA.
And good luck Boeing and the teams behind the SLS, and all other space agencies around
the world.
Let’s make this upcoming decade one to remember for space travel.
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