AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

PROJECT BACKGROUND Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) founded in 2011, is one of the few companies that offers commercial sub-orbital spaceflights to the general public. Moreover, these spaceflights allows scientific institutes to perform scientific research in space (microgravity research). To provide these spaceflights, SXC has a wet-lease agreement with space vehicle developer XCOR Aerospace. The commercial space industry is still in its infancy and therefore it is important for SXC to capture as much market share as possible and build in entry barriers for competitors to come. Currently, SXC holds a market share of roughly 30% opposed to one other competitor, based on sold spaceflight tickets. Market studies on commercial human spaceflights forecasts a growing demand, which will lead to an increase of competitors as well. Thus, the challenge is to grow the SXC brand and strengthen SXC’s position in this market. In order to operate spaceflights, SXC will use a so-called spaceport. A commercial spaceport is similar to an airport, but then facilitating the flights into space. Literature has indicated that a commercial spaceport needs a visitor experience center to generate more revenue. Thus, the assignment of this thesis is to develop a SXC branded experience center concept that could be implemented at multiple spaceports paired with a business strategy. Therefore, the spaceport is a key stakeholder in this project. To have a SXC visitor experience on spaceports all over the world, a competitive advantage is created. This would not only enhance SXC’s brand and position in the market, but creates extra revenue for SXC as well. ANALYSIS After performing a company analysis it is worth mentioning that SXC has the expertise in facilitating commercial spaceflights in terms of legislations, procedure, infrastructure and logistics. Moreover, SXC has know-how on the experiences and emotions paired with the different stages in the actual spaceflight. However, the vision, mission and values of SXC were not clearly stated. Roscam Abbing (2010) notes that a strong vision and mission can separate a company from its competitors. In the external analysis relevant macro trends have been found (see table 3.4) as well as the fact that there is an urge of commercial spaceports to have a visitor experience center to generate more revenues. On top of this, a spaceport can only survive when signing an anchor tenant, like SXC. This gives SXC an advantage. An interview with the CEO of Spaceport Sweden (SPS) confirmed the possibility of having a SXC experience center at SPS (SPS is currently performing a feasibility study for the development of the spaceport). To design a visitor experience center various existing experience centers and museums have been studied. It could be concluded that for the design the four conditions of ‘learning for fun’ by Packer (2006) should be applied (read more in section 3.3). Moreover, it is important as a designer to not only focus on the messages to be conveyed to the visitor, but to also take the…