2019: An Astronautical Year?

Virgin Galactic jumped ahead a couple weeks to start a year with tantalizing possibilities for manned space flight. Spaceship Two reached the 50-mile height that the FAA considers high enough to count as “space.” The last time an American rocket lofted men that high was 2011, the last launch of the Atlantis.

Blue Origin announced in October that it will crew a capsule on a similarly sub-orbital trajectory atop its New Shepard in the first half of 2019. Boeing and SpaceX are both on NASA’s schedule to perform manned demonstration flights in the summer of their new orbital capsules. Those projections are close enough ahead to have some potential correlation with future reality. After years of anticipation and many, many adjustments of the projected timelines, this could be the year. How many of the four will have launched before the close of 2019? How many will have launched paying customers, private individuals not associated with the companies or government space agencies in 2020?