In the popular mindset, space travel is deeply associated with the midcentury. Thanks to a litany of movies from The Right Stuff to Apollo 13 and a space program that reached its peak in the late 1960s, many Americans view the prospect of space exploration as part of a bygone era, a vestige of the Cold War.
Space, though, is as modern as it gets. Over the last decade, we've seen unprecedented advances in space technology that are poised to revolutionize communications, transportation, and exploration in the twenty-first century.
"For investors, space represents one of the largest total addressable markets, and assets within the industry remain particularly underleveraged," said Ari Stiegler, a pioneering venture capitalist whose firm, Flux Capital, invests significantly in space technology and transportation. "As we navigate the post-COVID world, space offers solutions to problems on earth and opportunities to expand the bounds of human possibility. At Flux Capital, we believe it is time to bring space exploration back to a position of prominence."
SpaceX, the private space transportation and technology firm, is making considerable strides within this field, Stiegler explained. While already a household name thanks to its celebrity founder and CEO, Elon Musk, and its successful reusable rocket launch in 2017, SpaceX is pioneering a new model of consumer space travel that will give Americans-and people around the world-unprecedented access to outer space.
Starship, the company's new super-heavy rocket and delivery system, said Stiegler, is designed to be one of the first fully reusable transportation systems to carry humans and cargo from earth to the moon and mars.
"From a logistics perspective, Starship will change the way we launch satellites and offer new possibilities for global interconnection," Stiegler said. "The Falcon 9 from SpaceX can carry 22,800 KG to low earth orbit (LEO). When compared to the Starship capacity of over 150,000 KG to LEO, the step change in utility becomes apparent."
Stiegler explained that this valuable service will allow scientific researchers, telecommunications companies, and private industry to place satellites into orbit with greater ease and efficiency, increasing the scope of services satellites offer companies and individuals on Earth. In conjunction with SpaceX's Starlink program, which plans to use satellites to drastically increase worldwide access to high-quality wi-fi connections, Starship can help offer solutions to a number of concerns and challenges we will face in the post-COVID era.
Even more exciting, though, is Starship's application to human spaceflight, Stiegler said. SpaceX envisions Starship will soon carry humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond. Starship's spaceflight capabilities will be put to the test with a lunar flight in 2023. Set to be the first private lunar flight in history-and man's first visit to the Moon since the Apollo missions-Starship will take renowned Japanese artist Yusaku Maezawa on a week-long flyby.
"In many ways, Starship's first manned mission will be a prelude to a future trip to Mars," Stiegler said.
While Maezawa's flight is still more than two years away, SpaceX is already putting its technology to the test under real-world conditions. In mid-Feburary, SpaceX is expected to test SN10, a Starship prototype, in a high-altitude orbital space flight from a launchpad in Texas. The test flight will assess the performance of Starship's three raptor engines and transition propellent systems while giving SpaceX engineers key data about Starship's aerodynamism.
SN9, a Starship prototype launched in January, successfully ascended and preformed its landing flip maneuver. A malfunction led SN9 to descend at a rate much faster than initially anticipated, causing it to explode as it returned to the launchpad.
"No one gets to space without a few hiccups, and SN10 is well-positioned to further push the envelope of Starship's capabilities," said Stiegler. "This is very much an iterative process, and I'm excited to see Starship come to fruition."
With support from private investors like Stiegler and innovative firms like SpaceX, space exploration is poised for continued growth in 2021, reconnecting with the heritage of our spacefaring past and ushering in a new age of manned exploration of the solar system.
