Cygnus in flight (Image: Orbital Sciences)

Update 18 September: Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus spacecraft is now on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) after a successful launch from Wallops, Virginia, at 10:58am local time. The capsule is expected to perform a series of demonstration manoeuvres before reaching the ISS on Sunday, when it will be captured by one of the station’s robotic arms and docked.

Original article, published 17 September 2013

SpaceX, the darling of private spaceflight, is about to get a rival. That means commercial space will no longer be a one-horse race, which could be good news for science, industry and humanity’s relationship with space.


Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Virginia, is currently preparing to follow in the footsteps of SpaceX and become the second commercial entity to dock a craft with the International Space Station (ISS). Orbital’s uncrewed cargo-carrying craft Cygnus is due to launch this week from Wallops, Virginia, via its newly minted Antares rocket.

In addition to some healthy competition, Orbital’s entry onto the scene should bring new technological capabilities, lower prices and some welcome reliability to the ISS programme, which may allow the full scientific and human potential of the space station to be realised.

“The importance of these cargo delivery flights is to provide the benefits, the scientific knowledge and the experience it was built for in the first place,” says Scott Pace of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute in Washington DC.

ISS experiments

At first glance, Orbital’s voyage may not seem that exciting. Unlike SpaceX, founded by billionaire Elon Musk in 2002, Orbital is a 30-year-old industry stalwart with hundreds of satellite launches under its belt, including NASA’s LADEE moon probe earlier this month. But Cygnus will give NASA new flexibility.

SpaceX can lift heavier payloads, but Orbital provides a larger pressurised volume, meaning astronauts can unload the craft directly (see diagram). By contrast, part of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule can only be unloaded by a robotic arm, a far more complex procedure.

The two craft also give NASA different capabilities in terms of carting cargo off the station. “SpaceX’s vehicle is designed to return to Earth, which allows us to bring home some of the science on board the station,” says NASA spokesman Joshua Byerly. “Orbital’s vehicle is designed to allow us to pack it full of trash and be destroyed upon re-entry.”

Having two options should increase the number of flights to the ISS, which in turn can help NASA exploit the station’s full potential. The station has been a technical and diplomatic success but must still prove its worth as a laboratory, says Pace.

Luxury items

What’s needed is a full complement of astronauts with enough time to conduct experiments rather than just maintain the station. Though Dragon has yet to carry crew, and Cygnus is not designed to, these flights can help keep the station at full crew capacity by ensuring there are enough supplies.

Frequent commercial deliveries could allow for more timely experiments on the station, says Roger Launius of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.

The extra capacity could help make life on the ISS less stark, for example by giving the astronauts more luxury items, such as the guitar recently used by astronaut Chris Hadfield to cover the David Bowie song Space Oddity. “If you’re basically maxed out on just bringing up the necessities then you’re not going to send that,” says Launius. It’s an important step if space is to become a norm for humanity.

Orbital’s success will also drive competition, says Greg Sadlier, space analyst at consultancy firm London Economics. “It will increase availability and decrease the price of launches, which will allow the space economy to grow,” he says.

Excitement butterflies

Once both companies have established that they can reliably resupply the ISS, they can look for other customers. Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace wants to build a commercial space station based on inflatable habitats, but has so far been delayed by a lack of low-cost launch capability. A test module is due to launch on-board a Dragon capsule in 2015.

“The space station alone is a really important early market, but it’s not a very large market, so finding other uses and customers is really important,” says Pace.

Dragon or Cygnus could also act as independent orbiting labs to fly microgravity experiments – the first such Dragon mission is set for 2016. Or they could send cargo to the moon, which Orbital is considering, says Orbital’s Frank DeMauro. Musk has also declared his desire for SpaceX to reach Mars (see “Making plans for Mars”, below).

First, though, Orbital must make good on its plans. Antares blasted off for the first time in April, carrying a dummy Cygnus. This week’s launch is the real deal. Once Cygnus reaches ISS altitude, expected on 21 September, it must demo a bunch of manoeuvres before astronauts on the ISS are allowed to grab it with a robotic arm and slot it into a port for unloading. This is a demonstration mission but Cygnus is carrying 700 kilograms of cargo, including food and clothes.

“I’m feeling very confident, very excited,” says DeMauro. “It’s natural for us to have butterflies, but that’s not out of fear, it’s out of excitement to get there, and show what Cygnus can do.”

Making plans for mars While a second company prepares to send a craft to the ISS, SpaceX, the first firm to do so, is starting to test reusable rocket technology that could one day enable a return-trip to Mars. The mission, scheduled for last weekend but pushed back to the end of September, is the launch of an upgraded version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The firm’s first for a non-NASA customer, it will deliver a Canadian Space Agency satellite to orbit– and test rocket reusability. Today’s rockets are single-use, which makes them costly. After the new Falcon 9 takes off, instead of letting the rocket’s first stage fall into the sea, SpaceX will fire its engine just above the water to simulate a landing. It’s ambitious. “Upcoming Falcon 9 demo has a lot of new technology, so the probability of failure is significant,” tweeted SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Eventually the company hopes to have its rocket stages return to the launch pad. One day, such tech could allow a rocket to land on Mars, nicely positioning it for the return trip. More immediately, SpaceX is one of a cluster of firms planning to carry people to the ISS, in order to truly replace the space shuttle. SpaceX wants crewed flights to start within three years, while Boeing and Sierra Nevada are working on space taxis.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Private space race comes of age”