We're going back to the moon... and this time it's to stay!

The 'Space Race' is more than hotting up... huge advances are being made right now in the U.S, China, Russia and within private companies - mainly in the U.S where a new kind of Golden Era, a Space Era has awakened on the back of recent SpaceX successes, Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the aim of reducing the dollar cost of payload to orbit, getting stuff up into space is expensive and he had a vision to dramatically reduce that cost by creating the worlds first reusable rocket, prior to 21st December 2015 (the date the SpaceX team successfully landed a rocket booster), rockets would eject their hugely expensive booster and core stages and splash them into the sea or burn them up in the atmosphere...

if someone could create a rocket booster that could land, and reclaim the costs associated with building the rocket each and every time.... then that could change things...

so with just £100m (peanuts in the aerospace world) in capital raised from the sale of PayPal (formerly X.com) to eBay, Musk invests everything into SpaceX, they start work on Falcon1 (a nod to Star Wars' Millennium Falcon).

The endeavour to prove to the world and in particular to NASA and the U.S Government that the team at SpaceX could develop the first privately-developed liquid-fuel launch vehicle to go into orbit around the Earth nearly bankrupted SpaceX and Musk, in 2006 the first Falcon1 rocket failed, shortly after clearing the launch tower... they tried again, with a second Falcon1 rocket, this one got even higher, it transitioned onto its second stage, but then it too failed!

So in 2008, they built a third rocket, now running out of cash they desperately needed to evidence to NASA and the U.S Government that a private company could reach orbit. This would make them eligible to tender for government contracts to move cargo, satellites and maybe one day even people to space and LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and in exchange receive the cash they desperately needed not just to survive but for research and development of new rockets and space vehicles.

So in August 2008 on Omelek Island the third Falcon1 rocket took off, it worked a dream... but as it transitioned onto its second stage, the first stage separation caught the upper stage engine nozzle and the rocket failed! They experienced what Elon now calls a RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) - it blew up, that was it, they didn't have enough funds for another rocket, they were screwed - barely able to meet payroll .. but they had a few parts lying around that they could use to produce a fourth rocket if they worked quickly...they set to work, to create the fourth Falcon1 rocket, a last ditch attempt - everything was on the line... this was it, SpaceX would live or die by the results of this next launch.. could a private company really produce a liquid fuelled rocket and get into orbit around the Earth... if so why hadn't Boeing, Lockheed Martin or Rolls Royce the largest aerospace companies in the world beaten them to it?

On 28th September 2008 at 23:15 UTC, the fourth Falcon1 blasts off from the Marshall Islands, this time the launch goes off without a hitch, 02m 36s into the flight, the rocket ejects its first stage, the second stage engine ignites its burners perfectly the rocket roars on to leave the earth atmosphere.. the fairing separates and the 'RatSat' a simulated 165KG satellite was placed into orbit... they did it - something that previously only six nations had successfully accomplished, the first successful orbital launch of any privately funded and developed, liquid-propellant carrier rocket, the SpaceX Falcon 1! SpaceX had done it, they paved the way for private space.

Space X opened the door to commercial space... and since then they have worked hard to drive costs down...

Fast forward to December 2015 and the team at SpaceX just landed their first Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral - I'm sure most people can remember at least seeing news clips on YouTube of the first time we ever seen SpaceX landing actual rocket boosters just 6 years ago - it looked like we were watching the future being built...and we were!

Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX had combined the modern principles used in both engineering, business and software development - principles of rapid iteration and testing, they had combined these two drivers to create a world leading culture at SpaceX, where talent could flourish and as such they soaked up the best engineers through osmosis - the best engineers, coders and people managers from across the states which enabled them to push the envelope of reusability and innovation even further, developing the first reusable boosters the Falcon9.

NASA administrators now knew they had a viable commercial partner in SpaceX, they pumped money into the company by awarding them numerous contracts to launch satellites, SpaceX used these funds to develop out the Falcon9 and Falcon Heavy programs and ultimately to develop Crew Dragon - the crew launch vehicle that would finally replace the NASA shuttle program which ended in 2011.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon is a reusable 4 man crew module that pushes the envelope on design and automation, the space vehicle is fully autonomous, capable of docking with the International Space Station without any human intervention at all and on 2nd March 2019 SpaceX launched NASA Astronauts Douglas Hurley & Robert Behnken from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida - the first time Americans were launched on an American made rocket, from American soil since the Shuttle retired in 2011.

More recently SpaceX completed the launch of Inspiration4 the first all civilian crew to launch into space, they spent 3 days onboard Crew Dragon, orbiting the earth at a height of 575km (higher than the ISS), SpaceX also developed a special glass dome called their Cupola Window the largest window ever on any space vehicle, which enabled the crew to get an amazing view of earth from space.

Admittedly Jared Isaacman isn't just a regular guy, he is billionaire CEO of Shift4 Payments, however this doesn't detract from the fact that he is a private citizen, he isn't a NASA Astronaut and he was able to charter a space craft from a private company and take it on a 3 day joy ride around planet Earth...

This is a seismic shift towards the opening up of space... and this is just the start - SpaceX are now developing something called Star Ship and Super Heavy, SpaceX hopes to develop the worlds first fully reusable rocket, were both the upper and lower stages are recovered after every launch... they have also developed their own engines in-house called the Raptor engine which runs on METHLOX, liquid oxygen and methane a much cheaper alternative to rocket grade kerosene used in other rockets, it can be produced easily, even on the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX are working frantically at their test site in Boca Chica, Texas. Working around the clock to test and roll out Star Ship, they may even try for an orbital attempt in just a months time (Nov 2021). This new space vehicle will drastically slash the cost for ordinary people to go into space, Elon Musk has stated that his goal is to;

Make life a multi-planetary species in his lifetime...

For the first time in human history, in the next decade it may be a very real possibility for humans to move to another planet or to the moon to live and work, and this seismic shift will be permanent.

the opportunities that space exploration will open up for commercial enterprise cannot be under estimated, one such example is the mining asteroids such as 16 Psyche (rendered above) just one of the many of the celestial bodies out in the asteroid belt just beyond Mars, its the remnants of an proto-planet a planets core, composed mainly of iron and nickel;

estimated to be worth approximately $10 Quintillion, or five million times more than the UK’s £2 trillion GDP, and 10,000 times more than the 2019 global economy!

If you were able to recover this lump of precious metals drifting in space (about the size of Cyrpus) it's value would be enough to make everyone on Earth a billionaire - NASA are currently planning a mission to get up close to Pysche 16 - you can see why.

Or we can look to the Moon or Mars... Helium3 is a light, stable isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron with uses in Cryogenics, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Semiconductor Processing or as a fuel for Nuclear Fusion, the possibilities are endless.

In the next few years we are going see an acceleration as countries and companies scramble to keep up with each other, to be the first ones up there in space returning profits... a new age gold rush with spaceships and spacesuits to boot!

As these opportunities unfold unfront of our very eyes and as humans create the first outposts on the moon and then on Mars, these new settlements will grow, and just like the settlements in the old world, when Europeans first settled in the Americas those pioneers will need outfitters, stores, bars, lodges, schools, clothes and all that vibrancy that creates human culture will flower for the first time beyond the confines of this small blue planet.

2022 is just the start, in just a few months NASA kicks off its long awaited Artimis Missions with Artimis 1 launching in Feb 2022, this program will see humans return to the Moon for the first time in 50 years, and in doing so, we will create a permanent presence both in orbit (using Gateway - a new orbiting laboratory similar to the ISS) and on the Moons surface creating new habitats, demonstrating new technologies building permanent bases in collaboration with private companies like SpaceX.

The future is about to change, our children's children might need a planet of birth on their passports...humans are about to take their place amongst the stars and the possibilities that this will create are endless. So what's stopping you? The future is bright, the future is Multiplanetary!