Commercial Space Travel

The commercial space transportation industry is defined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as companies in the business of providing space transportation to customers requiring the movement of payload to, from or within the space environment. As a result, our industry serves as the backbone of any market using the space environment to conduct its primary business. These markets include the transportation of astronauts and cargo to orbit, satellite systems (navigation, television, radio, communication, internet), space tourism and academic or industry research payloads. The types of space transportation systems to satisfy these markets include:

• Suborbital Systems:
  Space transportation systems operating within Earth’s gravitational influence below a typical orbital velocity of 17,500 mph. Such systems generally include high altitude rockets and space plane vehicles developed to achieve an altitude considered to be space (100 km) but without the sufficient velocity needed to remain in space. These systems hold high potential for space tourism, education, scientific and technology development market segments.
• Orbital Systems:
  Space transportation systems designed to operate primarily in the extreme conditions of space at or greater than orbital velocity and provide support and transportation to and from planetary orbits. These vehicles might generally be considered "transfer vehicles".
• Launch Vehicle Systems:
  Spanning the gap between the suborbital and orbital regime of space flight requires rockets having the power necessary to overcome Earth’s gravity and deploy payloads into the orbital space environment. These rockets, also known as "launch vehicles", comprise the backbone of the industry because they are currently the only practical and best validated method.

STAR Systems is going to satisfy the under-served needs of the suborbital systems market with the Hermes Spacecraft. Our goal is to offer people and payloads a ride into space.