The Commercial Space industry has grown rapidly in the last few years partly due to the retirement of the space shuttle and the need to supply cargo and crew to the space station.
This page will follow the progress of the various companies as they reach towards space.
Sub-Orbital Craft
Craft that are designed to reach the edge of space and then return to the launch site.
SpaceShipTwo | Virgin Galactic | Test Flight’s on-going | Commercial Operations scheduled to begin once testing has been completed, progress was delayed following an accident that resulted in the death of one of the test pilots. |
New Shepherd | Blue Origin | In Development | No date available for Commercial Operations to begin. |
Lynx | XCOR | Cancelled | XCor has stopped development and are instead focusing on engine development. |
Orbital Craft
Dragon, Dragon V2 | SpaceX | In Production | Commercial Operations began in 2013. Dragon V2 development ongoing, first test flight scheduled for late 2017. |
Cygnus | Orbital Sciences Corporation | In Production | Commercial Operations began in 2013. |
Dream Chaser | Sierra Nevada Corporation | In Development | No date currently available for Commercial Operations to begin. |
CST100 | Boeing | In Development | No date currently available for Commercial Operations to begin. |
Launchers
SpaceX | Falcon 1/9/Heavy | Falcon 1 retired, Falcon 9 operational, Falcon Heavy in development |
Orbital Sciences Corporation | Pegasus, Taurus, Antares, Minotaur | All operational |
Blue Origin | New Glenn | In development |
Stratolaunch Systems | Stratolaunch System | In development |
Virgin Orbit | LauncherOne | In development |
Rocket Lab | Electron | In development |
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