Space Cowboys High-profile entrepreneurs pursue the final frontier.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When several of the world's most notable entrepreneurs allseem to agree where the next big business opportunity lies, youhave to pay attention. But what if they're all startingcompanies to provide space transportation to tourists?
The question is highly relevant today, as a gaggle of marqueebusiness creators line up to invest sizeable fortunes in goingwhere no profit-making business has gone before. The list includesMicrosoft co-founder Paul Allen, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Virgin founderRichard Branson and Elon Musk, who co-founded PayPal and sold it toeBay for $1.5 billion.
Space isn't as unlikely a source of profits as it may seemaccording to Musk, whose Space Exploration Technologies in El Segundo,California, plans to launch its first space vehicle this year. Thedevelopment costs--as much as $100 million--will be recouped bylaunching satellites for communication companies and governmentagencies at first, Musk says. SpaceX, as the company is known, willcharge $5.9 million per shot of the smaller of the two rockets itplans to develop, and $15.8 million for the larger one. Bothfigures are substantially less than going launch rates.SpaceX's first customer is the Department of Defense, for whichit plans to send a $30 million satellite into orbit.
"We'll very quickly get to seven or eight launches ayear," Musk says. "That brings us to about $100 millionin annual revenues, and we'll grow from there." Afterrefining SpaceX's satellite-launching capabilities, Musk hopesto offer human transportation to NASA and other space agencies aswell as tourists. "Long term, that probably is the biggestgrowth market, provided you can get the safety and cost toacceptable levels," he says.
Branson's Virgin Galactic is going straight to tourism. TheLondon company is investing $100 million to develop a fleet ofships offering space rides for $190,000 per person. Governmentagencies have charged $15 million and up to the handful of privateindividuals determined to fly into space, the company says. Atlower rates, Virgin envisions 3,000 people lining up within fiveyears of the first commercial launch in 2007. "We've hadhuge amounts of interest worldwide," reports Alex Tai, aVirgin Galactic director.
Virgin is now securing regulatory approval for the U.S.-basedlaunches and is finalizing designs based on technology developed byaviation entrepreneur Burt Rutan for his SpaceShipOne, winner ofthe $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 as the first privateenterprise to safely put a human in space.
Other leading entrepreneurs are also involved. Allen ownsRutan's Mojave Aerospace Ventures. Little is known aboutBezos' Seattle-based startup, Blue Origin, except that it plansto develop a human-piloted launch system. With this crew ofentrepreneurs at the controls, the new space race promises tofascinate.
