Meet the Entrepreneurs at the Forefront of the Space Race
Call it the New Space Age. There's a reignited fervor for all things extraterrestrial, and entrepreneurs are leading the charge. From zero-gravity tourism to satellite and software development, themed entertainment and beyond, commercial enterprises are capitalizing on opportunities in the burgeoning space industry. As costly and risky as these endeavors may be, the possibility for reward is out of this world.
Almost half a century after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, entrepreneurs are titillating the public's imagination with extraterrestrial possibilities once again.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has stated that his company could land humans on Mars in the next 10 or 12 years (despite setbacks such as the explosion of an F9R test vehicle in August). Commercial flights on XCOR Aerospace reportedly could start as early as 2015, with tickets going for about $95,000 each. Virgin Galactic, perhaps the best-known carrier of them all, has its sights set on commercial space flights this year.
"This is a very exciting time to participate in the space industry," says Virgin Galactic's Sir Richard Branson. "There is so much room for commercial companies to work alongside government to send people up to space, bring in new investment and prove there is a market for customers who want to go to space."
The efforts of Branson and other entrepreneurs have reignited the fervor of the Space Age. It could be the 1960s all over again, but with one important difference: This time, innovation is intentionally driven not by monolithic governments.
"Lots of people think of space in a kind of 'space race' model, but these days it's much more collaborative," says Mark R. Johnson, a researcher from the University of York who has been studying the internal workings of the U.K. space industry. "It's much more
