Pentagon Wants SpaceX Delivering Cargo Around The Globe - and a live test could come next year

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Have you ever marvelled at all those futuristic space movies where so many rockets are just zooming all over the sky? This day is getting closer with the Pentagon pushing SpaceX to get cargo delivery via space, a reality as soon as possible.

Transportation and travel through space have been talked about a lot these past couple of years. With the recent successes of Virgin Galactic and SpaceX, we’re seeing an emergence of startups exploring the real-world applications of rocket technology. These companies are willing to go the extra mile and do things that were never thought possible.

In the year 2021 alone, there were a total of 133 successful orbital launches which marks the most launches in a year than any in history. Rocket technology continues to evolve rapidly in the private industry where several companies in countries like the US, India and China now manufacture crewed and uncrewed rockets.

Elon Musk on the other hand continues to prove his doubters wrong about the possibilities SpaceX can achieve.. And now SpaceX has joined forces with the Pentagon in hopes to deliver over 100 tons worth of cargo via orbit to anywhere in the world in under an hour. Imagine the speed that these rockets will have to travel at!

Dubbed the Rocket Cargo Program, led by the US Air Force, The Pentagon will help research and develop capabilities of transporting cargo on a rocket.

Greg Spanjers, who's a rocket program manager at the US Air Force, said in a statement that “The contract between the parties will help determine what a rocket can achieve when it comes to say - cargo transport, flight speed, and the costs for such a system.”

In order to make this project a reality, SpaceX has been testing various prototypes of their Starship rocket which is currently the only machine capable of launching heavy payloads into space and returning back to earth.

As you all know, SpaceX has the ability to launch and later land its reusable rockets. Who would’ve thought of that 20 years ago. After only a handful of failed attempts, they have now managed to fly rockets into space over a hundred times and safely land them back on earth.

The contract with SpaceX will also explore the possibilities to transport military cargo, personnel, disaster relief, and humanitarian aid around the world. However, these are a lot of ‘ifs’ considering the number of challenges to be faced. For instance, not many places on the planet will have a dedicated launch or landing pad. Plus the high costs involved, and then the several policies to be cleared in each country.

But given the company’s fairly successful record of rocket landings and payload delivery, This does look more like a future reality than a waste of time.

The Air Force has also stated that they will have access to SpaceX’s other rockets to collect key data points on environmental signatures and performance. SpaceX will also be responsible for providing cargo bay designs that support swift loading and unloading of intermodal containers.

Although there’s no specified timeline to demonstrate the project at this point, the Air Force will be leveraging on several commercial launches over the next few years for data collection.

What’s crazy is that, if space transportation becomes commercially viable, Elon might deliver Tesla vehicles around the globe in under an hour. The burden on shipping and air freight will be relieved dramatically if another form of cargo transportation is possible.

This isn’t all just for cargo. Traveling from London to Sydney isn’t possible with current airlines. It’s too far. And some routes throughout the world, like Dubai to Houston, are over 17 hours. With travel speeds like SpaceX and the air force are working on, it would enable a London to Sydney flight to be just a few hours rather than multiple days.

This would open up routes and travel to parts of the world that were a burden for most. It is completely revolutionary and the world will become even smaller than it currently is. It would be completely possible that you could live in Europe and have weekends with your family in Thailand. Or wake up in Los Angeles and in an hour or two be having your morning coffee in front of the Colosseum.

I hope someday in the future to see space travel like this become affordable.

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