How are we able to enjoy live television and radio broadcasts from anywhere in the world?Make international telephone calls?Respond to emergencies and disasters? is the short answer.But how do satellites get to space?This is the function of commercial space transportation.Space transportation is the movement of, or means of moving objects to, from, or in space.You are probably familiar with at least one form of space transportation: the Space Shuttle.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a U.S. government agency, owns the Space Shuttle and uses it to take astronauts into space.But the Space Shuttle does not carry the satellites that help us everyday.Commercial space transportation meets these needs.Commercial rockets (also known as launch vehicles) are built and owned by private companies, not government agencies.

How do commercial launch vehicles get satellites to space?

Rocket engines are the key to getting launch vehicles and their cargoes into space.Rocket engines work because of a principle called propulsion.In the engine, rocket fuel burns and forms gases.The gases push in all directions, but a nozzle at one end of the engine allows the gases to escape in only one direction.This creates a force on the rocket, much like the one you feel when spraying water from a garden hose.The force is great enough to lift the rocket off the ground and into space! Launch vehicles have to work hard fighting gravity in their upward climb.To do this, they carry a lot of fuel, which makes them even heavier.In order to reduce the weight they carry into space, vehicles are often built of multiple sections, or stages.Each stage has its own fuel. When all of a stages fuel is burned, the vehicle drops the stage so it does not have to carry extra weight.Other important technologies for commercial launches are systems that track, guide, and control launch vehicles as well as launch pads and control centers.

Are there different types of launch vehicles?

Launch vehicles range in size.Bigger satellites and those bound for high orbits generally need bigger rockets than smaller and lower-orbit satellites.Satellite owners have many launch options because several countries build launch vehicles.In the United States, there are multiple launch companies.The commercial launch vehicles used today are called expendables because their stages are not recovered for re-use. In the future, satellites and even people may ride on reusable vehicles, which would return to earth after their missions and be used again.

How big a business is commercial space transportation?

In 1999, U.S. commercial space launches and the satellites they put into space added over $60 billion to the U.S. economy.That level will likely grow in the future as people think of new ways to use the unique environment of space.

For more information, contact:

Office of the Associate Administrator for

Commercial Space Transportation

Federal Aviation Administration

800 Independence Avenue, SW, #331

Washington, DC 20591

202-267-7793

http://ast.faa.gov