Commercial Human Space Flight. A New Frontier for Aerospace Business 

The variously named ‘Industry Day’ or ‘Manufacturing Day’ boasted one of the most eagerly awaited guests of the whole conference, the former astronaut and president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Michael López-Alegría. 

 

López-Alegría, who has taken part in four space missions and holds three NASA records, explained that, in the very near future, commercial space trips would be not only a reality but also even a fairly common event. The first ever, private suborbital journey is due to be carried soon, at a cost of 95,000 dollars per passenger. According to López-Alegría, however, some firms are already trying out different types of commercial space trips for all walks of life: ideas range from a type of “space balloon” trip for enjoying stunning views of the earth (from a height of up to 100 kilometres) to suborbital and orbital trips. Some of these projects would already allow the spacecraft to make up to four trips a day.

 

According to López-Alegría, the commercial space trips sector currently employs nearly 6.000 people and this number is bound to increase in coming years. The United States is leading this race with nine cities that are already space ports and another seven who have applied to be so, but there are many countries and cities interested in becoming space ports to host launch points for these private space trips. The opening up of the commercial aerospace market will offer many advantages – and not only economic ones. It will allow the public aerospace industry to overcome its main hurdle of recent years, the sheer cost of these programmes, generating wealth and jobs, but it will also allow enhance our scientific and technological knowledge. According to López-Alegría, this will be a boon from the human point of view.