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| - Vega Aerospace Corporation is an American SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES (SPACEX) Company: SpaceX Spaceship name: Dragon spacecraft/Falcon 9 rocket. Number of passengers: 7 maximum, or fewer with a mixture of cargo/crew Founder(s): Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal Founding: 2002 Backing: $100 million of Musk personal fortune, $20 million from investors Location: Hawthrone, California. Launched from Kennedy Space Center, FL. Plans to launch: Debut launch tests in 2010, 1st operational flights in 2011. Contracts: US Govt/NASA. ORBITAL SCIENCES Spaceship name: Cygnus/Taurus 2 rocket Founding: 1982 BLUE ORIGIN
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| - Vega Aerospace Corporation is an American SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES (SPACEX) Company: SpaceX Spaceship name: Dragon spacecraft/Falcon 9 rocket. Number of passengers: 7 maximum, or fewer with a mixture of cargo/crew Founder(s): Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal Founding: 2002 Backing: $100 million of Musk personal fortune, $20 million from investors Location: Hawthrone, California. Launched from Kennedy Space Center, FL. Plans to launch: Debut launch tests in 2010, 1st operational flights in 2011. Contracts: US Govt/NASA. ORBITAL SCIENCES Spaceship name: Cygnus/Taurus 2 rocket Number of passengers: So far, Cygnus is purely unmanned. Founder(s): David W. Thompson, Bruce W. Ferguson, Scott L. Webster Founding: 1982 Backing: Publicly traded company, $1.1 billion in revenue. Location: Dulles, Virginia. Launched from Wallops Island, VA. Plans to launch: 2011 Contract: NASA (Cargo runs to ISS) BLUE ORIGIN Spaceship name: New Shepard Number of passengers: at least 3 astronauts Founder(s): Jeff Bazos Founding: 2004. Backing: His personal fortune as founder of Amazon.com Location: Kent, Washington. Testing in Texas. Plans to launch: Mid-2012 Contract: NASA (astronaut escape system/composite space capsule-commercial) BIGELOW AEROSPACE Spaceship name: Sundancer/BA-330/Genesis 1 and 2. Number of passengers: Sundancer supports crew of 3/BA-330 to support crew of 6. Founder(s): Robert Bigelow. Founding: 1999. Backing: $180 million of his personal fortune, owner of hotels. Location: North Las Vegas, NV. Plans to launch: 2015. Contract: Private space hotels, private moonbase. NASA (7 crew vehicle) SPACE DEV/SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATION (SPACE DEV) Spaceship name: Dream Chaser. Number of passengers: 4 on suborbital flights, up to 6 for orbital flights. Founder(s): Jim Benson (deceased), now led by Faith Ozmen. Founding: 1997. Backing: Sierra Nevada Corp., of Sparks, Nevada Location: Poway, CA. Plans to launch: Under development. Contract: NASA (develop Dream Chaser) VIRGIN GALACTIC Spaceship name: SpaceShipTwo. Number of passengers: 6 passengers, 2 pilots. ($200,000 per seat, tourism) Founder(s): British billionnaire Sir Richard Branson. Founding: 2004. Backing: His personal fortune as founder of Virgin Group Location: London, England. Spaceport, New Mexico. Plans to launch: end of 2011/early 2012. Contract: Private. No NASA funding. HARDIMAN AEROSPACE Spaceship name: HAN-IV (HAN 1-3, no longer operational)/LUNA-01 moonbase. Number of passengers: crew of 6 on HAN-IV. Founder(s): David Hardiman of Hardiman Corporation. Founding: 2010s? Backing: Hardiman’s personal fortune. Location: ? Plans to launch: Northstar project, ongoing in 2037. Contract: Private. No NASA funding. Notes: Largest privately funded space effort.
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