Financing the New Space Industry: Breaking Free of Gravity and Government Support

Description

This Palgrave Pivot investigates the efforts of five aerospace companies—SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Orbital Sciences, and the Boeing Company—to launch their entry into the field of commercial space transportation. Can private sector firms raise enough capital to end the usual dependence on government funding? What can historical examples of other large-scale transportation initiatives, such as the first transcontinental railway and the first commercial jetliner, teach us about the prospects of commercial space flight? As Howard E. McCurdy shows, commercializing space is a great experiment, the outcome of which will depend on whether new space entrepreneurs can attract support from a variety of traditional and nontraditional sources. Front Matter ....Pages i-x Introduction: The View from the Mezzanine in Kent, Washington (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 1-7 The Dream of Commercial Space Flight (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 9-12 Financing Privately Developed Transportation Schemes: Precedents from the First Transcontinental Railroad (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 13-26 How Corporate Executives Approach Business Decisions: Financial Planning for the Boeing 707 Jetliner (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 27-32 Five Case Studies (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 33-36 Boeing: Pairing Commercial Work with Government Contracts to Reduce Risk (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 37-44 SpaceX: Leveraging Government Support to Raise Private Capital (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 45-55 Blue Origin: The Entrepreneur as Philanthropist (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 57-72 Virgin Galactic: Promoters and Prizes (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 73-83 Orbital Sciences: The Challenge of Breaking Away from Government Contracts as a Source of Revenue Flow (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 85-96 Other Methods of Government Support (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 97-106 Reflections and Summary (Howard E. McCurdy)....Pages 107-116 Back Matter ....Pages 117-122