2015 AN EPIC YEAR FOR THE SPACE INDUSTRY
2015 AN EPIC YEAR FOR THE SPACE INDUSTRY
By Chad Anderson
January 2016
2015 was a fantastic year for the space industry and for Space Angels Network. Our global network grew to 110 accredited investor members, making us one of the 10 largest angel networks in the world, while providing our members even more benefits and greater access. And with this momentum showing no signs of slowing, 2016 is poised to be even better. But first, to celebrate the end of 2015, we’d like to reflect back on some of our favorite space industry highlights from the year:
In addition to many exciting scientific missions (New Horizons flyby of Pluto and its moon Charon, discovery of difinitive liquid water flows on Mars, the Cassini orbiter discovery of ice volcanoes on Enceladus feeding Saturn’s rings, Astro Kelly’s year in space, and the awakening of Rosetta), there were also a number of game-changing commercial developments, making space more accessible and affordable than ever before.
Rocket Reusability
To kick off 2015, SpaceX attempted “Mission Improbable”, the first-ever drone ship landing attempt in January, which ended in spectacular fashion. In April, SpaceX launched Dragon to the International Space Station (ISS) and the Falcon 9 first stage attempted to land on the autonomous drone ship, aptly named Just Read the Instructions, and then crashed. The company conducted a successful pad abort test in May, a significant milestone on the path to crewed missions to ISS. And of course, in December SpaceX finallystuck the landing, on land, at Cape Canaveral. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has since predicted a 70% success rate in Falcon 9 landing attempts for 2016.
In April, Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital vehicle launched to 94km and while the crew capsule parachuted to ground safely, a hydraulics problem caused a crash of the propulsion module. In September, Blue Origin unveiled plans for a two-stage orbital launch vehicle. And in November, Blue Origin performed the second test flight of New Shephard, which reached a peak of 100km and the propulsion module made a successful powered vertical landing. While this feat was immediately compared to what SpaceX had been trying to do all year, The Verge did a great piece on why you shouldn’t compare the two.
For startups and would-be space entrepreneurs, what is most important about these advancements is the increased access to space that reusable launch promises. This, in combination with the miniaturization of technology and standardization, is making space accessible to startups and entrepreneurs on an unprecedented scale. Historically, getting something into orbit was so expensive that triple redundance was built into every satellite component, to ensure that it worked when it got there. This risk aversion required extensive on the ground equipment and facilities for testing in a simulated space environment, which ultimately drove development costs up astronomically. However, entrepreneurs have started to realize that by building the redundancy into a number of small low-cost satellites, they can skip the expensive on the ground tests and test in the actual space environment. In April, at a meeting of the National Research Council’s Space Studies Board in Washington, NASA associate administrator for science John Grunsfeld summed up this point brilliantly, saying that it is “getting to point where it’s cheaper to test tech by flying it in CubeSat launched from ISS than putting it through ground tests.”
Читать дальше