Abstract
In November 2011, Space Florida – the State of Florida’s spaceport authority and aerospace economic development agency – and the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space (FAA-AST) partnered to commission a study prepared by the Tauri Group to forecast the 10-year demand for suborbital reusable launch vehicles (sRLVs). The analysis interviewed 120 potential users and providers, polled 60 researchers, assessed budgets, and surveyed more than 200 high-net-worth individuals. The results of the study – Suborbital Reusable Vehicles: A 10-Year Forecast of Market Demand – were made available to the public via the Space Florida and FAA websites and, since it’s the only study of its kind, much of what appears in this chapter is taken from the study.
The suborbital spaceflight market represents a fundamental shift in the nature of the manned spaceflight business. When SpaceShipTwo’s and Lynx’s start routine suborbital flights, it will jumpstart a new commercial space industry. But what exactly is this industry and just how viable and successful will it be?
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Notes
- 1.
The International Aeronautical Federation (FAI) is the world governing body for aeronautics and astronautics records, which includes man-carrying spacecraft. Among the FAI’s responsibilities is the verification of record-breaking flights. Some records are claimed even though the achievements fail to meet FAI standards. For example, Yuri Gagarin earned recognition for the first manned spaceflight, despite failing to meet FAI requirements because he didn’t land in his spacecraft (he ejected from it).
- 2.
Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion (SUSTAIN) is a concept first proposed in 2002 by the US Marine Corps to deploy Marines via suborbital flight to any location on Earth.
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Seedhouse, E. (2014). Suborbital Market. In: Suborbital. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03485-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03485-0_2
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