This was a huge year for space exploration, and Colorado’s collective aerospace and scientific community was represented in most of the biggest space-related headlines.
The innovative work of Colorado triumvirate Lockheed Martin Space Systems, United Launch Alliance and Ball Aerospace & Technologies made NASA’s Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 a rousing success.
The science bringing us new understanding of Mars’ atmosphere from NASA’s MAVEN mission is led by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Southwest Research Institute’s Boulder-based space division has the science on the Rosetta comet landing mission, and Longmont-based DigitalGlobe launched the world’s most advanced imaging satellite, WorldView-3 .
And then there’s Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Space Systems, makers of the Dream Chaser spacecraft, which despite its well-publicized loss of NASA’s Commercial Crew “space taxi” contract to Boeing and SpaceX, continues to
quietly dominate the commercial aerospace market.
Space Systems had one of its best years ever, expanding the Dream Chaser program globally and much more, division chief Mark Sirangelo said.
“We had space hardware, which was designed and tested right here in Louisville, flown to the International Space Station, operated on Mars and, very soon, will provide the world with the first close look at Pluto,” he said.
The loss of the space taxi contract stung — and resulted in some job losses
.
But the Dream Chaser, a spacecraft resembling a mini-Space Shuttle, didn’t put all its eggs in the NASA basket.
Space Systems unveiled the Global Project spaceflight program, which allows any government, agency, commercial interest or academic client to develop a space program on their own terms, either by outright purchasing a Dream Chaser vehicle or buying seats on a flight. Along with this comes plans for astronaut training and the orbiting microgravity laboratory Dream Chaser for Science.
Space Systems also launched six Orbcomm Generation 2 satellites — designed and built in its Louisville headquarters — into orbit. And the company acquired Orbital Technologies Corp., based in Wisconsin.
This all adds up to make space increasingly accessible for more countries, making Space Systems the little company that could carry Colorado ingenuity around the globe.
Sirangelo credits several factors for Colorado’s strong showing in the 2014 aerospace arena, among them the late-2013 addition of retired Maj. Gen. Jay Lindell to the state’s Office of Economic Development to act as the state’s aerospace industry champion.
It’s all a team effort, Sirangelo said.
“None of our success would be possible without the key contributions being made to support us, and our industry, from the local and state level,” he said. “We expanded our relationship with Lockheed Martin. We congratulate them, ULA and our state’s universities, on the highly successful Orion launch and other high-profile successful missions this year.
“Innovation,” he added, “is alive and strong in Colorado.”
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or twitter.com/LauraKeeney
