These companies are the tip of the tipping point, the creators of the emerging commercial space industry that will make space activity visible and relevant to the American consumer.

Links to many of these companies can
be found oun our links page

4Frontiers Corporation
AeraSpaceTours
AeroAstro
AirLaunch LLC
Andrews Space
Armadillo Aerospace
AstroVision
Beyond-Earth
Bigelow Aerospace
Blue Origin
Constellation Services International, Inc.
da Vinci Project
Difinity, Inc.
Digital Globe
E' Prime Aerospace
Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation
Flometrics
Forever Bound
Garvey Spacecraft
High Altitude Research
HMX Inc.
Interorbital Systems
JP Aerospace
Kelly Space
Kistler Aerospace
Lunar Enterprise
Lunar Enterprise Corporation
Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc.
Masten Space Systems
Mojave Aerospace Ventures
Orbital Recovery Corporation
Orion Propulsion
Orion Space Launch Systems
PLANETSPACE
Rocketplane Ltd.
Scaled Composites
Space Adventures
SpaceDev
Space Exploration Technologies
Spacehab
Space Launch Corporation
Spaceport Systems
Space Travel Company
Sprague Astronautics
Tethers Unlimited
The Spaceship Company
TGV Rockets
Transorbital
Transformational Space Corporation
Universal Space Lines
Virgin Galactic
XCOR Aerospace
X-Rocket, LLC
Zero Gravity Corporation

 
   
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
 The events listed below permit us to imagine how the commercial space economy will emerge in North Carolina and the nation, beginning with these anticipated entrepreneurial space accomplishments:

2005-07_Inaugural flights of new privately developed and operated launch vehicles

2005-08_Prototype commercial habitats placed in orbit for testing

2008_Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company begins space flights at Mojave Airport (a typical commercial airport, not a govt. space complex)

2010_First occupants arrive at orbiting three-deck commercial habitat Now, imagine this possible scenario in North Carolina… and the StarPort markets this creates:

2007_Research Triangle Park opens a corporate/ academic Space Exploration Enabling Technologies R&D Institute

2009_Honda's business aviation unit in Greensboro begins designing personal sub-orbital spacecraft, working closely with Triad-based aviation companies

2010_Virgin Galactic begins east coast space flights from North Carolina

2011_DHL begins trans-Atlantic sub-orbital cargo flights to Global TransPark (renamed the North Carolina Inter-modal Transportation Complex)

2013_Durham's GE Transportation-Aircraft Engines facility begins manufacturing engines for small commercial hybrid air/ space vehicles

2014_Ft. Bragg/Pope Air Force Base complex ("Home of the Airborne and Special Forces") inaugurates space flight deployment

2015_NC State opens permanent North American International Space University campus

2020_NC State, UNC, and Duke universities operate first orbiting campus built with Bigelow Aerospace habitats


About the Author Jeff Krukin is an international space policy speaker, writer, and analyst. He developed the Human-Space Connection™ concept.




The author lives in North Carolina and conducted grant-funded research for the North Carolina Space Initiative of the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Science & Technol-ogy at North Carolina State University.


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