so how do you get your own satellite in space?

[vandal]

Companies that are reliant on satellites like cellular phone corporations, satellite TV providers, GPS tracking companies, etc., all have their own satellites in space.

So what I'm wondering is how they got their satellites up there.

I mean, call me crazy, but I'm assuming NASA has something to do with this. So did they have to pay NASA a fee to haul their satellite up for them? Or does NASA have satellites already up there for rent or lease? Or do these companies secretly have their own space craft which are able to launch satellites? Or... what?

[Sentinel]

You go out and buy around 4,000 of those solid fuel model rocket engines they sell at Kmart, shove them all in this big ass pipe, poke your payload on top, light the fuse and run like hell.

[HorseloverFat]

If you're rich enough it can ride on the Space Shutlle, or on Europe's Ariane rocket. I don't think any private corporation has made it to space, they just pay to ride on a government rockets.

[Sam Stone]

There are several corporations that launch rockets:

ArianeSpace is a consortium of business and government.

"Orbital Sciences" is a corporation that provides space launch via a whole range of different sized rockets. Their Pegasus rocket has had 27 successful orbital insertions and one failure.

"Sea Launch" is a commercial launch business 40% owned by Boeing, with several foreign government agencies as minority partners. They just launched a DirectTV satellite from an ocean platform.

"Rocket Systems Corp." is a Japanese space launch company that has a government contract to provide commercial launch services.

The Alaska Aerospace Corporation is building a private launch facility on Kodiak Island.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch.

The only thing NASA has a real monopoly on is space lift for very large and/or heavy payloads. Russia is also doing commercial heavy-lift space launch.