With launch sites in South and West Texas, and NASA in Houston, Texas plays an outsized role in the burgeoning commercial space industry. Last month, after several setbacks, the SpaceX StarHopper reached an unprecedented height during a short test flight in Boca Chica.
Tech expert Omar Gallaga says commercial spaceflight is really just beginning, and it’s getting a big boost from well-funded, and well-known billionaire entrepreneurs.
SpaceX, owned by Tesla founder Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin are leading the industry. And each has a major launch facility in Texas. Gallaga says that it’s taken both companies longer than originally promised to get rockets off the ground, but that they’re now making progress and conducting successful launches.
“There’s lots of launches, especially on the SpaceX side, and it’s all about the rockets,” he says.
The “heavy” rockets both SpaceX and Blue Origin have built are aimed at carrying large, commercial payload – and eventually, people – into space.
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– What commercial space companies’ goals are
– What space companies other than SpaceX and Blue Origin are doing
– What role politics plays in the new space race
– How NASA figures into the commercial space race
