THE BASICS: Run by PayPal founder Elon Musk, this company has already built and tested a private rocket, Falcon, and has a capsule, Dragon. It already has a demonstration contract for private cargo with NASA. It is considered a leader in the field and has connections with Google.
THE WEB SITE: http://www.spacex.com/
-- THE COMPANIES: Boeing Co. of Chicago and Bigelow Aerospace of
Las Vegas.
THE BASICS: An interesting pairing. Boeing is one of the oldest
companies in aerospace with corporate history going back to Mercury
missions. Bigelow is a pioneer in the private space business that
is developing a commercial space station/hotel. Boeing has its own
much-launched rocket family, the Delta, and also is partners with
Lockheed Martin Corp. in a firm that launches Delta and Atlas
rockets.
THE WEB SITE: http://www.boeing.com/ and
http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/
-- THE COMPANY: Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev.
THE BASICS: A high-tech government contractor that recently
bought one of the early private space firms, SpaceDev Inc.
THE WEB SITE: http://www.sncorp.com/
-- THE COMPANY: Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va.
THE BASICS: One of the first private space companies. It has its
own in-use rocket family, Taurus, which launches from Wallops
Island, Va. It also has a demonstration contract for private cargo
with NASA.
THE WEB SITE: http://www.orbital.com/
-- THE COMPANY: Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., or as
part of United Launch Alliance of Denver.
THE BASICS: Lockheed Martin had been building the capsule for
NASA's moon mission that is being canceled. It is an aerospace
giant with a long history in manned space and has its own family of
decades-old rockets, the Atlas. It could compete on its own or as
part of the United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture with
Boeing that launches unmanned commercial rockets.
THE WEB SITES: http://www.lockheedmartin.com and
http://www.ulalaunch.com/
