Enterprising the Enterprise

Many of us were first exposed to space flight in the 1960s via the competing space programs of the US and the then USSR.  Starting in 1966, one of the most successful and long lasting TV series ever, Star Trek, was launched, followed by its numerous off shoots, which provided its large fan base a glimpse into the future of space.  They all continue to this day.

When Gene Rodenberry created Star Trek, the world was immersed in the space race.  Mr. Rodenberry wanted the crew of the Enterprise “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

The Starship Enterprise, a product of The United Federation of Planets, travelled in the 23^rd century and was Government controlled, according to Rodenberry’s vision.

The initial goal for the US and the USSR was to get to the moon first, where no man had gone before.

Starting with ground breaking baby steps – sub orbital flights, flights of a few orbits and then longer flights – the space race was on.  The US program was comprised of a series of distinct missions, the Mercury flights, then Gemini and finally Apollo, with Apollo 11 manned by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins reaching and landing on the moon first.

The words of Neil Armstrong upon stepping on to the lunar surface of “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” was indeed a prophetic statement, since in retrospect, it took a giant leap to get there, comprised of the many baby steps, albeit compressed into a relatively short time frame of 8+ years, from President Kennedy’s charge to the nation on May 25, 1961 to the lunar landing on July 20, 1969.

Subsequent to that event, there were other moon landings and then the Shuttle program, where, among many projects, was the building of the ISS, the International Space Station, a project that required the combined efforts of Canada, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States, and eleven Member States of the European Space Agency.

Once built, travelling to the ISS was either through the Shuttle or the Russian Soyuz.  Many experiments are performed on the ISS to achieve the next set of goals, inter-planetary travel.

In the past, all work in space was government owned and controlled, even though, out of necessity, an enormous infrastructure of private organizations fueled the effort, resulting in a significant ecosystem.  The overall aviation, aerospace and astronautics industries have always been formidable factors in the local economies of Southern California, Florida, Alabama and other locales.

In 2004 the Shuttle program was cancelled, and the US became reliant on Russia, paying tens of millions of dollars to bring astronauts, food, supplies and experiments to ISS.  It was (and still is) a precarious situation as Russia has not made significant investment in maintaining its rockets and capsules.

Astronaut Scott Kelly’s book Endurance: My Year in Space a Lifetime of Discovery describes his harrowing experience on the Soyuz in detail, demonstrating that something else needed to done if the US was to continue with a viable space program.

Government ownership and control has decreased in recent years, as we are now in an age of space entrepreneurism.

Smart entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and SpaceX, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin, Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic and the late Paul Allen and Stratolaunch Systems have taken a “renegade” approach to space, each carving out a niche that serves to expand and grow the industry.

They are joined by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and its Cygnus space capsule used to resupply ISS, and Orbital ATK, now a part of Northrop Grumman.

Each is working with NASA and the space agencies of other governments to deliver supplies to the ISS, launch communications and military satellites for other countries, and even plan for consumer space travel, if only suborbital flights initially via Virgin.

On March 2, 2019, SpaceX launched Crew Dragon aboard its Falcon 9 Rocket in an unmanned flight to the ISS.  Later this year, SpaceX will launch astronauts into space aboard Crew Dragon as they head to the ISS, the first such US launch with humans in more than 8 years.

Innovation has been front and center in the enterprise focused space program.  Among the most unique, from SpaceX, for example, is the ability to land the Stage 1 of the rocket at sea on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship, thus enabling reuse of the rocket.

It is the innovation that can only be found in private enterprise, even as a part of a partnership of the public and private sectors, that continues to advance space exploration.

In the past few weeks, entrepreneurship took another giant leap forward as Israel is about to become only the fourth country to launch a space capsule and land it on the moon.  Prior moon landings have been the US, Russia crashing a capsule on the surface and China’s recent landing of a space craft on the dark side of the moon.

Israel’s lunar project was through a private enterprise, nonprofit group SpaceIL and the company Israel Aerospace Industries.  Beresheet is expected to land on the moon around April 11, after going into lunar orbit on April 4.  It is on its way at this writing.

The moon is merely a stepping stone as we head to Mars, something that SpaceX is actively working on, having sent a Tesla with a crash dummy in the driver’s seat which is now on its way.

United Launch Alliance will likely send astronauts to the ISS in 2019 also.  Soon it will become a commonplace, just as ULA, SpaceX and Northrop Grumman have shown to date with unmanned flights.  The US dominance at this point continues.

Space exploration will continue and with it will be a need to defend territories, manage space junk and other matters that arise as they do on Earth.

But the most important leap has already been taken – the dominant role played by enterprise.  Could Rodenberry’s choice of the name Starship Enterprise have been a foreshadowing of what was to come?

And as we look to the near and distant future, man will go where no man has gone before.

 

This blog is written by Marty and Roberta Shindler of The Shindler Perspective, Inc., an organization specializing in providing a business perspective to creative, technology, and emerging companies.  They may be reached at Shindler@iShindler.com.

Published March 2, 2019

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