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Noteworthy
I
In recent years, some of the
most famous names in tech
with deep pockets are making
space travel somewhat more
affordable (if you’re already rich,
that is). Most are founding and
backing companies that have
devised innovative ways to get
more humans into space and
commercialize an industry that has
been mostly overlooked until just
recently.
Microsoft’s Paul Allen founded
Stratolaunch Systems, which
produces lightweight planes that
are useful for getting people and
cargo off the ground. Amazon’s
Jeff Bezos founded a similar
company, Blue Origins, to enable
private human access to space.
Richard Branson is also playing the
space game with Virgin Galactic,
his British commercial spaceflight
company within the Virgin Group
with ambitious plans to provide
suborbital spaceflights to space
tourists.
Probably the most outspoken of
these obvious intergalactic fanatics
and entrepreneurs is Elon Musk,
founder of Tesla and now Space X,
who is building rockets and
capsules to get astronauts to the
Creating Genius Magazine | Page 56
International Space Station and
eventually excursions to Mars.
planets for resources and precious
metals be the norm?
These spacetrepreneurs are literally
developing commercial services of
astronomical proportions. The best
part is that you can already buy
your ticket and reserve a seat.
I was more than curious, so I
reached out to Kellie Gerardi of the
Commercial Spaceflight
Federation, a private industry group
incorporated for the purposes of
establishing even higher levels of
safety for these on-the-rise
commercial spaceflights. Kellie
was able to shed some light on
space travel and why so many
entrepreneurs are exploring it as a
new avenue for business.
Other billionaires are establishing
new paradigms for resource
discovery. Google's Larry Page and
Eric Schmidt along with Avatar
director James Cameron have
backed Planetary Resources, a
startup equipped to mine nearby
asteroids for rare metals.
Microsoft's Bill Gates backed
Kymeta, a company who uses
orbital satellites to make the
internet more accessible in vehicles
and developing countries.
These new space initiatives are on
the rise, and I’ve only scratched the
surface. There are hundreds of
other entrepreneurs founding and
investing in companies that are
looking to the stars. It’s
exhilarating, imaginative and
perhaps a little delusional all at the
same time. Will we wake up in a
tomorrow where space tourism will
be common? Will space vehicles
crawling asteroids and nearby
CG: What are your thoughts on
entrepreneurs and their space
exploration?
Kellie: Every industry milestone is
a big deal for us. It’s exciting