Private Sector Fueling New Space Quest

By Business Across The Border JERRY PACHECO For the Journal

“Space, the final frontier …” Most of us who grew up in the pop culture of the

1960s and ’70s can easily complete

this introduction to the “Star Trek”

television series.

Those of us involved in international commerce here on Earth constantly have to deal with barriers and bureaucracy that hamper trade between nations.

Import/export restrictions, special permitting, bureaucratic inspections and tariffs tend to pit nations against each other and cause companies to be constantly battling to do business. The only things preventing entry into space are funding, ingenuity, and fear of failure.

As a child, I remember turning on the TV in search of my cartoon hour only to be disappointed that live coverage of the Apollo moon landings were being shown on all three networks. Even so, I had an appreciation for the momentous events that were occurring, and even though I was a child, I understood that the United States was winning the space race against the Soviet Union.

This point was constantly being emphasized in my conservative Methodist elementary school by teachers who came of age during the Cold War, when the word “Soviet” conjured up fear and repulsion. The race for space was critical from both West vs. East and military standpoints.

After U.S. astronauts first landed on the moon in July 1969, a series of seven Apollo missions sent men to the moon through 1972 — six of them successful. After the U.S. won the race for the moon, the U.S. and Soviet Union began cutting back their space programs. Since then, the U.S. space shuttle program and the launch of satellites have dominated the space scene.

In spite of this continuous activity, man has not revisited the moon for more than 35 years.

Lately, the quest to enter space for scientific, commercial and nationalist purposes has been heating up again. In 2003 and 2005, China sent its first men into space. On Oct. 24, it launched a satellite that will eventually orbit the moon.

Meanwhile, the United States has announced ambitious plans for an expanded space program with the objectives of building a space station and eventually landing Chinese astronauts on the moon. Japan launched a probe into lunar orbit in early October. India has announced plans to launch its own lunar satellite.

The entry into space, which was previously considered the domain of the Americans and the Russians, is causing many people to worry about whether the U.S., with its aging space shuttle program, will fall behind the rest of the world. However, something is occurring at the private-sector level in the U.S. that is truly exciting and highlights how international the quest to enter space has become.

I recently attended an ISPC/X-Prize Foundation reception in Alamogordo held in conjunction with the Air and Space Summit at Holloman Air Force Base.

According to its Web site (www.x-prize.org), the X-Prize Foundation was founded in 1995 by Dr. Peter Diamandis in the belief that “space travel could be made a reality through creation of a prize similar to the one Lindbergh was awarded for crossing the Atlantic in an aircraft.”

The foundation awards multi-million dollar “X-prizes” to firms that successfully complete a goal related to space travel.

The foundation held its Wirefly X-prize Cup, with the theme “Our next giant leap back to the moon,” at Holloman to bring together competing space companies, aerospace engineers, space enthusiasts, and students. At the reception, the role that the private sector has taken in driving the next wave of space flight became clear to me.

I met people from large consortiums, small engineering/ technology firms and government officials, all buzzing about how close companies were to completing objectives set forth by the XPrize Foundation.

I spoke at length with a man from France who represented a consortium associated with Airbus. He had been traveling to the various X-Prize shows throughout the country.

Also at the reception was Anousheh Ansari, who was born in Iran and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. She made history in September 2006, when she traveled on a Russian spaceship to the International Space Station.

Ansari, who spent 11 days on the Space Station, was the first woman to pay her way into space. She seemed like royalty at the event, with everybody wanting to meet her and learn about her experience.

I met people from Europe and Asia, mingling with Americans. Everybody talked excitedly about the newest space technologies and the progress being made by companies in fields such as reusable rockets and lunar landers. The almost cultish buzz I felt among the attendees made me rethink the new trend in the space race.

It’s true that governments are forging ahead with their space programs. However, private sectors from throughout the world are poised to commercialize the “race to space.”

At the private-sector level, a unique spirit of camaraderie exists. There is no “us vs. them” in terms of companies from different countries. Entrepreneurism, coupled with technological ingenuity and the excitement of entering the unlimited space market, is a potent combination.

Nor is this market the sole domain of developed countries. The best scientific minds and innovation are the tickets to enter this market.

Consortiums of companies from different countries have been put together to compete for the X-Prize.

The new space race is almost magical in the sense that the universe is the market. Private firms compete based on scientific prowess, without tariffs or other barriers hindering their progress. It’s with a childlike belief that anything is possible that firms from throughout the world are creating the next wave of space technology, which has the capacity to change mankind.

It seens that the sky is truly the limit.

Jerry Pacheco is executive director of

the International Business

Accelerator, a non-profit trade counseling program. He can be reached

at 505-589-2200, Ext. 17, or at

jerry@nmiba.com

(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.