Commercial Space Transportation Industry
How is it that we are able to enjoy live national or worldwide television and radio broadcasts? Make international telephone calls? Use high-speed Internet and nationwide paging services? Receive weather forecasts? Manage natural resource use? Respond to emergencies and disasters? Pay by credit card at a retail store? Satellite technology is the short answer. But how do those satellites make it into space? This is the function of commercial space transportation.
Space transportation is the movement of, or means of moving objects, such as communications and observation satellites, to, from, or in space. Commercial space transportation is carried out by vehicles owned and operated by private companies or organizations (GIF). The majority of such launches carry payloads owned by private companies and procured through a competitive bidding process, although government payloads are occasionally commercially procured as well. Commercial launches today are provided by expendable launch vehicles, which are used only once; many companies and entrepreneurs, however, are working to develop reusable launch vehicles, which could be used multiple times. Today, the United States is among several countries that offer commercial launch services. In recent years, commercial launches have comprised at least 25 percent of all launches conducted worldwide.
Another, growing part of the commercial space transportation industry in the United States is the development of private or state-operated launch, re-entry, and processing sites known as "spaceports (GIF)." Several states are developing commercial spaceports within their borders. These spaceports can provide space transportation service providers and their customers with an alternative to the traditional U.S. federal launch sites and ranges operated by either the U.S. Air Force or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Prior to the early 1980s, there was no commercial space transportation industry. Only the United States launched commercial satellites, and these were launched on vehicles owned by the government, including NASA's Space Shuttle. Events of the 1980s-including the birth of a European commercial launch services organization, recognition of commercial space transportation's value by U.S. government officials, and the ban of commercial payloads from flying aboard the Space Shuttle after the Challenger disaster-promoted the development of this industry in the United States. By the year 2002, U.S. commercial space transportation and the services and industries it enables accounted for more than $95 billion in economic activity (PDF) in addition to providing many benefits to public consumers. That level is likely to grow in the future as new applications dependent on commercial space transportation emerge.
The Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) is the U.S. government organization responsible for regulating and facilitating the safe operations and international competitiveness of the U.S. commercial space transportation industry.
