FEATURE
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER
2013
Virgin Galactic
www.investmentlife.com
84
Branson’s Virgin Galactic has a very simple mission, it hopes to put spaceflight, or at least ‘space lite’ within the reach of average Joes and Josephine’s across the globe. At least that’s the long-term plan. The short-term plan is to take (semi) extraordinarily wealthy folk for a taste of the stars. SpaceShipTwo is a small six-passenger space plane with a wingspan of 12.8 m. It’s carried aloft under the belly of the much larger 43 metre wingspan WhiteKnightTwo, to an altitude of 15,000 metres. There the mother ship releases the spaceship, which climbs to suborbital altitude under rocket power, spends five minutes in weightless space and then comes home. SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry space tourists on trips to the edge of space and back for USD $250,000 a ticket. The spacecraft achieved a significant milestone in September of 2013 when it was released from its carrier aircraft, the White Night Two aircraft at a height of 46,000 feet (14,000 meters). Two pilots ignited the rocket motor for 20 seconds, carrying the spaceship to 69,000 feet at a maximum speed of Mach 1.43, the company said. While the price may be steep for some, around 530 people have already put down deposits totaling USD $70 million to at the vanguard of space tourism. The first official passengers will be Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson and his family. Ashton Kutcher signed up in 2012. Rumor has it that actors Angelina Jolie, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Katy Perry have signed on as well. Virgin plans to operate its flights out of the Spaceport America complex in New Mexico, but it has also signed an agreement to develop a spaceport in Abu Dhabi.
Branson does see more practical, and potentially lucrative applications for the technology that’s currently flying out of (blasting off from?) New Mexico, including moonshots and high-speed city-to-city travel, making transcontinental flight quicker and more efficient than has ever been the case. Reckon on New York to Tokyo in three hours. The first commercial space tourism flights are scheduled for 2014.
Musk and SpaceX Musk does not have the showmanship of Branson, nor does he seem to have a predilection for swept back wings and a science fiction aesthetic. Musk is strictly old school, if it works, stay with it, making radical improvements along the way. He’s gone back to the traditional Apollo-like booster with a crew vehicle at the pointy end. However there are significant differences. His rockets are modular: the one-engine Falcon, the nine-engine Falcon-9 and the 27-engine Falcon Heavy. But Musk has already done what no other private entity had done before – he has sent a spacecraft into orbit and recovering it successfully. Aside from putting him in a class of exactly one (at least when it comes to paying cargo) it also attracts the attention of potential investors who value the tried and proven over a flashy show. Playing the odds it simply doesn’t seem like a good idea to bet against Musk becom-
ing Earth’s first space entrepreneur to make big money off government. Musk has already begun building on his success fulfilling a private contract to provide unmanned resupply the International Space Station (his first delivery was only 450kg, but that’s 450kg more than any other private competitor). SpaceX says they will be able to launch supplies or seven astronauts to the International Space Station for an average price of 57 million dollars per launch. The United States government currently sends astronauts to the International Space Station using the Russian space agency at a cost of 63 million dollars a seat. The Falcon 9 rocket can also launch supplies into low Earth orbit for approximately USD $5,512/kg). The Falcon Heavy hasn’t flown yet, and getting that many engines to fire in sequence without the rocket shaking itself apart and ending the dream in a rapidly expanding ball of hot gas on the Launchpad is a significant challenge. The Heavy that is scheduled to make its first flight in 2014 and could launch supplies into low Earth orbit for a cost of USD $2,205/kg. Those prices are less than half of the price that the United States Government spends now using the Russians and the Chinese. This puts him squarely in the spotlight to be the first entrepreneur to pick up the contract to ferry US astronauts into orbit – but that may still be some time off. At the moment the US is sticking with Russia and its aging Soyuz technology to keep the ISS supplied.
So you want to get in on the action? Orbital Sciences is open for business Heavy Testing The Falcon Heavy undergoes testing.
For investors wanting to get in on the ground floor of the space business there really is only one game in town – Orbital Sciences Corporation.