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 learning experience of the visitor into account. The competitor analysis discusses the differences between SXC and its main competitor Virgin Galactic. The spaceflight experience is different and therefore can be positioned distinctively by SXC. Also, XCOR as vehicle developer places more focus on safety and sustainability. However, no actual commercial spaceflights have been executed yet, but Virgin Galactic stands a high chance of being the first one. Based on the performed industry attractiveness analysis it is safe to say that SXC should initiate close partnerships with spaceports in their early development stage. Additionally, the design should be scalable to achieve a geographic competitive advantage. A threat is the fact that XCOR could start selling its space vehicles to other companies besides SXC in the future, creating more competitors. A customer analysis is executed with current clients of SXC and potential spaceport visitors to understand who they are and to discover the expectations of the spaceflight experience. Current clients like the heroic aspect of going on a space trip, the personal challenge and to make history as a person. The potential spaceport visitors are interested more in the future of space travel, safety and sustainability. Brand model literature was reviewed, which created a foundation for designing a new brand framework for SXC. It is worth mentioning that the ‘why’ of Sinek’s golden circle should be defined first. This is equal to the vision of a company. Moreover, the brand values can be defined by using archetypes. DESIGN PHASE The design vision of the experience center has been from the start of this project, “space will come to you”. This is targeting the general public that cannot afford a spaceflight ticket (currently $100,000). The experience center is divided in building blocks emphasizing the different sub-experiences within one flight. Firstly, the vision, mission and values were redefined with C. Faes (marketing director): Vision: “We believe that space belongs to everyone and it offers an entirely new world of opportunities that has yet to be seized”. Mission: “Our mission is to make space technically, financially and comprehensibly accessible for everyone, including the general public, the industry and the scientific world”. Values: Meaningful – With meaningful we mean significant. In order to be significant SXC, strives to be a game changer in the commercial space industry and to stimulate change that is beneficial for everyone. Empowerment – SXC empowers everyone to be game changing as well as letting you create your own benefits for the commercial space industry. Based on the analysis stage and this brand framework, six design criteria have been developed. Also, a persona is designed to tailor the experience center to his behavior, needs and wishes. A brainstorm session per defined sub-experience is conducted to develop design ideas. Ideas are selected with the design criteria and cohesion is formed through interior design and the brand- and spaceflight story (see section 4.7). The concept is evaluated with experience design firm Northern Light, and a user study with 12 participants matching the persona profile is executed. Both parties were positive about the concept and minor additions have been added to optimize (see section 4.11). BUSINESS STRATEGY First, a business model is synthesized. In this business model it is evident that three parties are relevant: SXC, the spaceport and the SXC leaseholder. SXC will provide the spaceport with this visitor experience concept, whereupon the spaceport will search for a leaseholder wanting to operate this center. Therefore, the investment of the center lays in the hands of the leaseholder and SXC will receive a annual license fee over the gross profit. Further, the spaceport also benefits from this concept, because it secures rent income from the leaseholder. Indirectly, this center will also attract many visitors for the spaceport. The admission fee is divided in two offerings, a full experience at $40 for adults and $32 for children and a sxc experience (only access to the ground floor) at an adult rate of $20 and $16 for children. This concept can be offered in three packages to the leaseholder varying in initial investments. Package A is the full experience, package B is experience-wise at 75% of A and package C is equal to 50% of the full experience. Package A, the full experience, needs an initial investment of $14.7 million to develop. A financial plan with a period of five years is drafted to investigate the center’s profitability and earnings for SXC. Two scenarios have been reviewed, a baseline scenario and a constrained scenario. The main difference between the two scenarios is the amount of visitors. With the baseline scenario the payback period of the initial investment is in 4.81 years. After year 5 the net profit amounts roughly $ 5.7 million. The annual gross profit of the experience center is from year 2 to year 5 respectively: $ 9.5 million, $ 12.6 million, $ 12.6 million and $ 15.1 million. This means with a 10% license fee the earnings of SXC will be (from year 2-5): $ 950,000, $ 1.3 million, $ 1.3 million and $ 1.5 million. In the constrained scenario no net profit is earned after five years with an admission fee of $40 and a 10% license fee. Therefore, the admission fee was increased with 25% (=$50) and the license fee reduced to 5% for SXC. This resulted in a payback period of 4.28 years. After year 5 the net profit amounts over $ 4.7 million. The yearly gross profit starts in year 2 at $ 7.9 million and increases to $ 15.1 million in year 5. With a license fee of 5% SXC earns from year 2 to year 5: $ 400,000 - $ 760,000. Within this project assumptions have been made to progress, which are discussed in chapter 6. At the end it can be concluded that implementing this concept could increase SXC’s brand image and strengthen its position in the market, not to mention an increase of revenues through licensing.