It's a mistake to think that private industry has taken over space. Government catalyzes the space economy in three ways: assuming risk, pushing the bounds of technology, and issuing contracts.
Read MoreAviation contributes $1.5 trillion—more than 5%—to the national economy. (Federal Aviation Administration, “The Economic Impact of Civil Aviation on the U.S. Economy,” June 2014)
Read MoreCommercial flight, like commercial space, needed a serious stimulus. It came in the mail.
Read MoreSpaceX has been amazing. It's an excellent government contractor.
Read MorePharmaceutical corporations already occupy a sizeable payload portion of satellites in space. And not just for exploration of space and Earth. The absence of gravity causes crystals to grow unusually large and with almost perfect form, without touching the walls of their containers.
Read MoreAs a rule of thumb, ten pounds of rocket fuel are required to push one pound of equipment or human into low Earth orbit.
Read MoreMost of today’s space economy occupies low Earth orbit, a 1,200-mile-wide band that’s a slice of less than one one-thousandth of the Gravity Well.
Read MoreSir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has already signed up 700 tourists like Lady Gaga and Leo DiCaprio at a mere quarter-million apiece. Still a little steep for you? Don't worry. The competition is growing.
Read MoreIt really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
