Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian space flight is set to take off on September 15. Aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, this space mission is expected to orbit the earth for three days, at an altitude higher than the International Space Station (ISS). A notable feat of this spaceflight is that this would be the farthest crewed mission since astronauts last traveled to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.
July 2021 has also been a landmark month for space technology in the United States as both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, conducted their independent space flights just one week apart.
As these milestones open the near-future possibility of commercial space flight or space tourism, we explored the space technology patent landscape to see just how this “future” is backed by technology.
We analyzed the patent landscape in the US and just how it measures up against other countries with notable space programs. We also looked at the patents and patent applications of SpaceX and Blue Origin.
