Commercial space firm SpaceX will send humans into space by 2015, according to a company executive, marking another major leap forward in the private space exploration industry.
The California-based company hopes to send astronauts into space in a currently planned demonstration mission in 2015, and while the aim is to secure additional contracts with US space agency NASA, SpaceX will be sending up its own staff first.
One of the potential candidates for the initial flights is Garrett Reisman, an ex-NASA astronaut who is now serving as project manager at SpaceX. He said that flight safety is very important to him and he will help ensure that the trips will be safe.
The announcement was made by Reisman during a news conference at the Kennedy Space Centre. He joked that SpaceX is not selling tickets, a reference to several space tourism ventures, including the well-known Virgin Galactic plans, backed by numerous celebrities.
The SpaceX mission will involve sending humans into orbit for three days, a change from its existing cargo supply missions to the International Space Station (ISS). We can likely expect a further manned test flight to the ISS before NASA agrees to send its own astronauts.
SpaceX's plans are being encouraged by NASA, which lost the ability to fly astronauts into and out of space with the retirement of its shuttle programme in 2011. Since then astronauts have relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The commercial space industry is a quickly growing arena, with a number of rivals to SpaceX popping up, including Orbital Scienes and aircraft maker Boeing, which is working on reusable unmanned spacecraft. With national space agencies receiving budget cuts due to the global economic downturn the private space sector could be just what is needed to ensure space exploration gets the support it needs.
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