Commercial Space Research: Entering a New Stage

The Space Act which established NASA included direction that NASA is to foster to the maximum extent possible the commercial use of space. In order to achieve this, NASA began establishing in 1985, Commercial Space Centers (CSCs). These centers are a consortium of industry, academia, and government. Primarily university based, the CSCs are chartered to partner with industry to help companies learn how using space can improve their bottom line. Responsibility for the Commercial Space Centers rests with the Space Product Development Office at Marshall Space Flight Center. Since the program was established in 1985, SPD has sponsored nearly 180 commercial microgravity research payloads on 30 Shuttle missions. The vast majority of these missions were on the order of 6 days. Most companies have only had on average three flight opportunities to advance their product development efforts. From the product development standpoint of an individual company only three weeks of microgravity time have been obtained to date. Of key importance to a company is the fact that this time has not been continuous. Anywhere from one to three years elapses between flights. Despite these flight constraints, the companies in the SPD program have made considerable progress. For example, over the course of the program through 1999, industry has invested over half a billion dollars in cash and in-kind. Over a dozen new product lines are in development by the industrial partners of the Commercial Space Centers. Now the companies partnered with the SPD program have a new opportunity in the International Space Station. The long duration capability provided by the Station will provide double the amount of per company average microgravity time in just the first increment. Current planning through planning increment 5 shows that commercial investment in space research should now be positioned for greater returns.