Top 3 private space companies

The space industry began to develop after World War II, as rockets and then satellites entered into the military and later found civilian applications. The space industry refers to economic activities related to manufacturing components that go into Earth's orbit or beyond, delivering them to different countries. This definition does not exclude certain activities, such as space tourism. The space industry can be described as the companies involved in the space economy and providing goods and services related to space.

 

 

Top 3 Biggest Space Companies Today :

1. Space X:

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to reduce space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX has developed several launch vehicles, the Starlink satellite constellation, the Dragon cargo spacecraft.

SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Dragon in 2010). The first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon in 2012).The first propulsive landing for an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2015).The first reuse of an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2017).The first private company to launch an object into orbit around the Sun (Falcon Heavy's payload of a Tesla Roadster in 2018), and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station (SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 Mission in 2020). SpaceX has flown 20 cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) under a partnership with NASA, as well as an uncrewed demonstration flight of the human-rated Dragon 2 spacecraft (Crew Demo-1) on March 2, 2019, and the first crewed Dragon 2 flight on May 30, 2020.

 

 

2. Blue Origin:

The company's name refers to the blue planet, Earth, as the point of origin. This Federation is also an American privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the company is led by CEO Bob Smith and is developing technologies to enable private human access to space to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability.

By 2015, Blue Origin had announced plans to also manufacture and fly its orbital launch vehicle, known as the New Glenn, from the Florida Space Coast. BE-4 had been expected to complete engine qualification testing by late 2018, but the test program continued into 2019. In May 2019, Jeff Bezos unveiled Blue Origin's vision for space and also plans for a moon lander known as "Blue Moon", set to be ready by 2024. On April 30, 2020, Blue Origin's National Team, which includes Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper, was awarded $579 million to develop an integrated human landing system as part of NASA's Artemis program to return humans to the Moon.

 

Blue Origin/Twitter

3. Virgin Galactic:

Virgin Galactic is a British spaceflight company within the Virgin Group, founded in 2004 by Richard Branson. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and suborbital launches for space science missions.

 Virgin Galactic had initially suggested that they hoped to see a maiden flight by the end of 2009, but this date was delayed for several years, most seriously by the October 2014 in-flight loss of SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise. Branson stated that Virgin Galactic was "in the best position in the world" to provide rocket-powered, point-to-point 3000 mph air travel on Earth. Finally, on 13 December 2018, VSS Unity achieved the project's first suborbital space flight, VSS Unity VP-03, with two pilots, reaching an altitude of 82.7 kilometers (51.4 mi), and officially entering outer space by US standards. The project carried three people including a passenger in February 2019 on VSS Unity VF-01, with a member of the team floating within the cabin during a spaceflight that reached 89.9 kilometers (55.9 mi).

 

    Virgin Galactic via engadget