Private companies have launched dozens of imaging satellites – like the two small boxes in the middle of the photo – into orbit in recent years.
NASA/Steve Jurvetson
Private satellite companies have boomed in recent years, and many experts have wondered what role they would play in a conflict. They have proved to be invaluable to Ukraine in recent months.
The crew consisting of pilot Larry Connor of the United States, commander Michael López-Alegría of Spain and the United States, and mission specialists Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe from Canada and Israel.
Axiom Space
Shrinking satellites are making it cheaper and more accessible to do science in space.
Both Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson successfully rode to space on rockets made by their private companies Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, respectively.
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Joseph Cabosky, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
According to a new poll, people across political and demographic lines think the private space race is good for the future but still just an ego trip for the billionaires involved.
Me (top, third from right) with others from the International Space University, in front of the Shuttle Atlantis at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Later this year I will spend time with former NASA astronaut instructors, before receiving high-G training, crew resource management training and spacesuit training, among other skills.
Virgin Galactic’s Unity VSS spacecraft went on a suborbital test flight in May 2021.
VIrgin Galactic
Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are sending spacecrafts – and their billionaire founders – into suborbital flight. But what differentiates a suborbital flight from a trip around Earth?
SpaceX concept of Starship.
AleksandrMorrisovich/Shutterstock
The first space tourist left Earth 20 years ago aboard a Russian rocket. Now, private companies are on the cusp of offering trips off Earth for those who can pay.
Senior Lecturer in Space Research & Law / In training as Suborbital Spaceflight PoSSUM Astronaut Candidate Graduate, Swinburne University of Technology