Enter the Dragon (Image: SpaceX)

Read more: “In with the New Scientist: Our predictions for 2011”

PRIVATE companies have been promising for years that they can slash the cost of space travel, breaking the government monopoly on space flight and opening up the final frontier to the rest of us. At long last these efforts may be bearing fruit.

On 8 December, the California-based firm SpaceX launched its Dragon capsule into orbit and safely parachuted it into the ocean – the first time a private company has achieved the feat.


Under a contract signed with NASA in 2008, the Dragon capsule will carry cargo to the International Space Station. SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes it will eventually be permitted to carry astronauts as well.

NASA, facing the retirement of the shuttle fleet in 2011, is actively encouraging the development of private space taxis. In 2010 alone it distributed $50 million to private space firms, including SpaceX, and Congress is considering spending hundreds of millions more in 2011.

So what do we have to look forward to in 2011? SpaceX plans two more demonstration flights, the first of which will likely blast off mid-year and is expected to fly within a few kilometres of the ISS. The second would actually dock with the station, marking another first for a non-governmental spacecraft.

Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by airline mogul Richard Branson, is also set to take some giant leaps forward in 2011.

In October 2010, the company carried out the first unpowered flights of SpaceShipTwo. The suborbital vehicle was lofted up to an altitude of nearly 14 kilometres by a carrier plane called WhiteKnightTwo, before gliding back down to Earth. SpaceShipTwo, which is modelled on the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne, will launch into space for the first time during test flights in 2011. If the tests are a success, passenger flights could begin as soon as late 2011.

Several other companies, such as Boeing, have long-term plans to offer rides into space. But Virgin Galactic and SpaceX are likely to dominate headlines in the coming year, and may make 2011 the most exciting yet for private space flight.

Read more: “In with the New Scientist: Our predictions for 2011”