Communication 📞: Satellite mega-constellations could be providing almost free, low latency and high bandwidth internet and cloud to every person on earth.There is value across the entire range of industries: Low Earth Orbit commercialisation and space privatisation will take humankind through a super-cycle of transformation within the next 5 to 10 years. The cost for heavy payloads has gone from $200,000 in the 1960s to under $2,000 with the Falcon 9's reusable rocket (and this cost drops every time it relaunches, which is 9 so far). However, the applications at a democratised level are simply irresistible. The occasional corporation might be able to invest tens of millions of dollars to send shoebox sizes satellites into space. Breaking away from this has been something that was reserved for military spending and large government projects. Anything less than 100 km above sea level is considered the earth's surface. Thales Alenia Space, a consortium led by Europe’s largest defense electronics company, France’s Thales, is a prime contractor on the capsule.Low earth orbit (LEO) is generally considered anywhere from 200 km above sea level to about 1,000 km above sea level. “We think Cygnus has the capability to do a lot more than just deliver cargo to the station,” said Frank Culbertson, a former astronaut who now serves as Orbital Science’s executive vice president. Should the mission be successful, Orbital Sciences plans to return to that station in December for the first flight under a $1.9 billion cargo resupply contract with NASA.įor now, NASA is the only customer for Cygnus, but Orbital Sciences expects new business as the United States and other countries launch exploration initiatives beyond the space station’s orbit. “For a demo flight, we don’t typically fill them up,” Suffredini said.Ĭygnus is expected to remain docked at the station for about a month.
supply line to the station following the retirement of NASA’s space shuttles in 2011.įor its orbital debut, Cygnus will be carrying a half-load of about 1,543 pounds (700 kg) of food and other cargo considered “non-essential” by NASA in case the rocket or spacecraft encounters problems and cannot reach the station. Like SpaceX’s Dragon capsules, which so far have made three flights to the space station, Cygnus is intended to restore a U.S. The 133-foot (40.5 meter) tall rocket will be carrying the company’s first Cygnus cargo capsule. EDT on Wednesday from the Virginia-owned Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, which operates under a lease agreement with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Orbital Sciences’ two-stage Antares rocket, which made a successful debut flight in April, is scheduled to lift off at 10:50 a.m. would join privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, in flying supplies to the space station, a $100 billion research complex that orbits about 250 miles above Earth. CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA on Monday cleared a second commercial company to launch a cargo ship to the International Space Station, with blastoff slated this week from a Virginia spaceport.
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