Kyle Smith

Douglas
18 April 2017
Multi Genre Project Timeline
Timeline
1954, a man named Thomas Cook, of Britain, introduced commercial flying on spacecraft
with the creation of Moon Register, mostly used for communication and other satellite
purposes.
1962, this marked the first year the United States government allowed privately owned
space travel to begin. The start was with AT & T's TEL-STAR satellites used for
communication advances for these businesses.
1986, The loss of the Challenger crew forced Ronald Reagan to open commercial play for
the industry because he did not want people of the country to continue to be upset. Losing
those astronauts was enough, and the nation thought they could do a better job protecting
people if American companies could create their own programs and shuttles.
1990s, The satellite industry is becoming very desirable because it has been shown to
have real beneficial results. Iridium, Teledesic, and Globalstar are three main companies
involved in this boom throughout these years.
2002, Elon Musk creates SpaceX to advance and enhance spacecraft for NASA.
Early 2000's, NASA has made tremendous progress in the use of robotic science and
solar sail technology to help further their exploration of space. The Glenn Research
Center Space Power Facility at Plum Brook Station located in Ohio has two solar sail
systems that have been produced and successfully tested.
2006, NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) are offering
contracts and deals to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) companies that are considered private. The
first two companies that went in on a bid were Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)
and Rocketplane Kistler (RpK). Overall, NASA's agreement was over 500$ million to
complete the programs. In 2007, RpK was canceled because they were failing to meet
certain requirements creating their ships and other products.
December 2010, SpaceX becomes the first privately owned company to have a spacecraft
return from low Earth orbit, Dragon ship.
May 2012, Dragon becomes the first privately owned spacecraft to reach the International
Space Station.
September 2014, SpaceX awarded $2.6 Billion Commercial Crew contract
April 14, 2015, Falcon 9 rocket launches on the sixth SpaceX resupply mission to the
International Space Station.
2016, NASA, SpaceX, and Boeing partner under a $1.6 Billion contract to create
products and resupply the International Space Station through several trips.
 August 31, 2016, Boeing CST-100 will dock with the International Space Station
2018, SpaceX will partner with NASA to send two separate missions to the International
Space Station and around the moon paid for by citizens.