14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the Boeing Company announced that a corporation has just joined forces with Space Adventures, Ltd, for the development of spacecrafts capable of reaching low-Earth orbit (LEO).
The collaboration has therefore jumped the private space vehicle bandwagon. Numerous other companies and startups are involved in such plans, including SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp.
According to the official Boeing press release, the two companies have “established a memorandum of agreement regarding the marketing of anticipated transportation services to destinations in low Earth orbit (LEO) on Boeing commercial crew spacecraft.”
The Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) spacecraft will be used as a basis for the collaboration. It will be Space Adventures' job to market passenger seats on the commercial flights that will be conducted using the CST-100.
Competition in this emerging field is stiff, but the gains are very attractive to many investors. Officials at Virgin Galactic have for example announced that a seat on their space plane, which can reach the edge of space, will cost around $200,000.
It's easy to see how a few flights loaded at full capacity would easily compensate for the costs associated with the research, development and construction stage of the project.
“Potential customers for excess seating capacity include private individuals, companies, non-governmental organizations, and U.S. federal agencies other than NASA,” Boeing officials reveal.
One of the main plans the company has for the future is ensuring access to orbital facilities such as the International Space Station (ISS).
Boeing plays a very important role in this project, as one of NASA's main contractors for constructing and providing engineering support for the facility.
NASA has just announced that Boeing will be awarded a new VECS contract extension for supporting the ISS until 2015. The agreement is estimated to worth $1.24 billion.
But other platforms that will be developed in LEO are also of interest to Boeing.
“By combining our talents, we can better offer safe, affordable transportation to commercial spaceflight customers,” explains the vice president and general manager of Boeing's Space Exploration division, Brewster Shaw.
“To date, all commercial flights for private spaceflight participants to the ISS have been contracted by Space Adventures,” he goes on to say.
“If NASA and the international partners continue to accommodate commercial spaceflight participants on ISS, this agreement will be in concert with the NASA administrator's stated intent to promote space commerce in low Earth orbit,” he concludes.