{"id":17439,"date":"2022-01-01T01:31:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T17:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/year-in-space-jeff-bezos-and-his-billionaire-rivals-finally-usher-in-the-age-of-commercial-spaceflight\/"},"modified":"2022-01-01T01:31:07","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T17:31:07","slug":"year-in-space-jeff-bezos-and-his-billionaire-rivals-finally-usher-in-the-age-of-commercial-spaceflight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/year-in-space-jeff-bezos-and-his-billionaire-rivals-finally-usher-in-the-age-of-commercial-spaceflight\/","title":{"rendered":"Year in Space: Jeff Bezos and his billionaire rivals finally usher in the age of commercial spaceflight"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"505\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/211231-bezos-630x505.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-664821\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/211231-bezos-630x505.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/211231-bezos-1260x1011.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/211231-bezos-768x616.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/211231-bezos-1536x1232.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/211231-bezos-2048x1642.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption>Jeff Bezos uncorks the bubbly after riding Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For 25 years, I\u2019ve been recapping the top stories about space and looking forward to next year\u2019s trends on the final frontier \u2014 and for most of that time, the dawn of the era of commercial spaceflight has been one of the things I\u2019ve been looking forward to the most.<\/p>\n<p>2021 was the year when that era truly dawned.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, you could make a case for seeing the dawn in 2000, when a company called MirCorp basically leased Russia\u2019s Mir space station for a commercial venture that fizzled out. Or in 2001, when customers began buying seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft heading to the International Space Station. You could also point to SpaceShipOne\u2019s rocket trips in 2004, which won a $10 million prize for a team backed by Seattle billionaire Paul Allen.<\/p>\n<p>But it wasn\u2019t until this July that the first paying customer took a suborbital ride to space on a privately owned spaceship. That was Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen, who flew in Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard capsule alongside the company\u2019s billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark and aviation pioneer Wally Funk.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The New Shepard Experience: Oliver Daemen\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZZ0_fhzAyTE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>We still don\u2019t know how much Daemen\u2019s family paid for his seat. However, we do know that a future Blue Origin flier, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, bid $28 million for a ride that\u2019s due to take place next year.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos is by no means the only billionaire pushing the commercial spaceflight revolution along: For more than a decade, British billionaire Richard Branson had been looking forward to being among the first to ride his Virgin Galactic venture\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane \u2014 the heir to SpaceShipOne \u2014 to the final frontier. He got his wish in July, just days before Bezos flew.<\/p>\n<p>And Shift4\u2019s billionaire CEO, Jared Isaacman, took a whole crew with him to orbit in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for the philanthropic Inspiration4 mission in September, with Isaacman footing the multimillion-dollar bill.<\/p>\n<p>All those riders \u2014 including Bezos, Branson and Star Trek captain William Shatner, who was a guest star on Blue Origin\u2019s second crewed flight in October \u2014 earned commercial astronaut wings from the Federal Aviation Administration. But as of New Year\u2019s Day, the FAA will no longer be handing out those wings.<\/p>\n<p>In a December news release, issued just before Blue Origin\u2019s third crewed flight, FAA Administrator Wayne Monteith said the 17-year-old astronaut wings program \u201cserved its original purpose to bring additional attention to this exciting endeavor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now that 30 commercial astronauts have flown, future spacefliers will have to content themselves with having their name on a list that\u2019s likely to grow ever longer, and wearing wings that are awarded by private companies rather than government agencies. Which is the surest sign that the dawn of an era has progressed to full day.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4 more top space stories from 2021<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Webb Space Telescope separation (full video)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EIubh3dLh-c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>James Webb Space Telescope lifts off:<\/strong> The good news is that after years of setbacks and billions of dollars in cost overruns, NASA\u2019s $10 billion JWST began its space odyssey on Christmas Day with a perfect launch atop a European Ariane 5 rocket. This week, there was better news: The launch was so perfect that the telescope should have enough fuel to keep operating for more than the 10 years that were originally anticipated. JWST is expected to zero in on targets ranging from the earliest stars and galaxies to the chemical composition of alien atmospheres. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Mars missions set milestones:<\/strong> Three interplanetary probes took advantage of favorable orbital parameters for their cruise from Earth to the Red Planet: The United Arab Emirates\u2019 Hope orbiter began studying the Martian atmosphere from above in February. China\u2019s Zhurong rover dropped off a wireless camera to snap an awesome selfie on the Martian surface. And NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover sent the first Martian helicopter into the planet\u2019s thin air in April. (The mini-copter is still flightworthy eight months later.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>SpaceX scores lunar lander contract:<\/strong> After months of deliberation, NASA chose SpaceX to build the first lander to bring astronauts to the surface of the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The space agency\u2019s decision in April to go with a version of SpaceX\u2019s Starship super-rocket sparked months of legal tussles with Blue Origin and Dynetics, which lost out. A federal court eventually ruled that NASA was right to give SpaceX the $2.9 billion contract. But Blue Origin isn\u2019t out of the moon race quite yet: Jeff Bezos\u2019 space company and several others (including SpaceX and Dynetics) are receiving millions of dollars from NASA to keep working on lunar lander concepts. . <\/p>\n<p><strong>Russian satellite smash-up sparks worries:<\/strong> In November, Russia fired a missile to destroy one of its own satellites, setting off alarm bells about the risks posed by orbital debris \u2014 and about the potential for satellites to be targeted during future conflicts in space. The International Space Station dodged the threat, but experts who monitor objects in low Earth orbit have identified more than 800 separate bits of debris that were left behind. Just this week, a new dispute flared up over close encounters between China\u2019s Tiangong space station and SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellites. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5 milestones to watch for in 2022<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Priming NASA's Artemis I for Launch to the Moon\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EQEPrJjk1pM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>A big year for big rockets? <\/strong>2022 could be the year that NASA conducts the first launch of its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, which is destined for Artemis moon missions. The Artemis I mission will send an uncrewed Orion capsule on a round-the-moon test flight, perhaps in the March-April time frame. Meanwhile, SpaceX is gearing up for the first orbital test of its Starship Super Heavy booster, United Launch Alliance is planning the first flight of its next-generation Vulcan rocket, and Blue Origin is targeting the end of the year for the debut of its orbital-class New Glenn rocket. There\u2019s a caveat to the timing, however: A year ago, we thought 2021 was going to be the big year for all those big rockets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More spaceships due for their debut:<\/strong> A year ago, we also thought Boeing\u2019s Starliner space capsule would start carrying astronauts in 2021. Boy, were we wrong: It\u2019s going to be at least another couple of months before Boeing conducts a second uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station, following up on a test that went awry two years ago. If the second test is successful, NASA astronauts could step aboard a Starliner later next year. Also in 2022, Sierra Nevada\u2019s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle could make its first uncrewed cargo delivery to the space station. <\/p>\n<p><strong>NASA strikes back at an asteroid:<\/strong> NASA\u2019s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission is sending a spacecraft to ram into an asteroid the size of Egypt\u2019s Great Pyramid next September, and a detailed study of the smash-up could help scientists figure out what to do if an asteroid or comet ever had to be deflected away from a catastrophic collision with Earth \u2014 as depicted in disaster movies like \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up,\u201d which premiered this month. The real thing, observed from a safe distance, should make for quite a show. <\/p>\n<p><strong>The mega-constellation market takes off:<\/strong> SpaceX\u2019s Starlink network is already making satellite broadband available on a limited basis, but 2022 is likely to be the year that space-based internet services go mainstream. It\u2019s not only SpaceX: OneWeb is due to begin global broadband service soon, and Amazon could launch its first Project Kuiper prototype satellites in late 2022. Next year\u2019s developments could also draw more attention to the downside of having all those satellites in low Earth orbit (see China vs. SpaceX, above).  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Will Stratolaunch go hypersonic?<\/strong> Before he died in 2018, Seattle billionaire Paul Allen had high hopes for Stratolaunch, the space venture that built the world\u2019s biggest airplane to serve as a flying launch pad. Now Stratolaunch is under new management, and after putting the Roc carrier airplane through its paces, the company is planning to start testing its reusable, rocket-powered Talon-A hypersonic vehicle in 2022. Will it actually fly? Stay tuned\u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>In honor of the 25th annual Year in Space roundup (and to reward you for reading this far), I\u2019ll throw out this trivia question: What was the top story I highlighted in 1997\u2019s first Year in Space recap? Email your answer to alan@cosmiclog.com. I\u2019ll update this report next year with the answer \u2014 and give a shout-out to the first person to get it right.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeff Bezos uncorks the bubbly after riding Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. (Blue Origin Photo) For 25 years, I\u2019ve been recapping the top stories about space and looking forward to next year\u2019s trends on the final frontier \u2014 and for most of that time, the dawn of the era of commercial spaceflight has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,291,190,493,316,492,4218,4686],"class_list":["post-17439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-commercial-space","tag-nasa","tag-space-tourism","tag-spacex","tag-virgin-galactic","tag-year-in-review","tag-year-in-review-2021"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}