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Space tourism to become a regular feature soon.

Fecha: Aug. 9, 2021
De: New Delhi Times
Editorial: HT Digital Streams Ltd.
Tipo de documento: Article
Extensión: 927 palabras
Nivel de contenido: (Level 4)
Medición Lexile: 1250L

Texto completo:
New Delhi, Aug. 9 -- The year 2021, especially the month of July, has been phenomenal for space tourism. The dream to visit space
as a tourist came to reality when Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson and Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos, toured space in quick succession.
The early strides of these billionaires opened up the frontiers of space tourism to common man. Space suddenly became a place not
just for astronauts but for tourists to avail experience of a lifetime!

The devils on the block: In 2001, businessman Dennis Tito became the first person ever to pay for a trip to space. Twenty years later,
on July 11, 2021, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic Company, flew to a height of 80 kilometres. The spacecraft VSS Unity
had 17 ship windows to look outside and several in-cabin cameras to record the experience for posterity.

Nine days later, on July 20, 2021, the New Shepard-the rocket ship of Bezos' aerospace company Blue Origin-had its first crewed
suborbital space flight from Texas to an additional 20 kilometres to the Karman Line-a boundary 100 kilometres above the ground
that demarcates the Earth from the space. That was New Shepard's 16th voyage but its first with passengers. Founder Bezos,
brother Mark, and an 82-year-old renowned female aviator Wally Funk who was trained as an astronaut in the 1960s before the U.S.
government canned its "women in space" program, spent roughly 10 minutes in zero gravity.

Visiting the International Space Station (ISS) is another possibility. Space X sent its first post-Space Shuttle crewed spaceflight in
May 2020 with two astronauts and Crew-1 Mission in November 2020 that successfully docked four astronauts at the ISS.

How much will it cost anyway? Virgin Galactic sold 600 tickets for $250,000 each but discontinued in 2014 after a test crash. After the
July 11 flight, ticket sales could reopen higher at $300,000- $400,000 for regular flights in 2022 before settling down to attract the rich
rather than the uber-rich.

Focus is on 1.78 million people of $10 million net worth who can afford a $100,000 ticket, while 5.07 million people with $5 million net
worth can pay $50,000 for a ticket. The raffle drawing for two seats requires donation to Space for Humanity.

Blue Origin has so far not priced its tickets but sales will start soon. Its 2018 estimates priced tickets at $200,000-$300,000. The
demand is very, very high for seats and private sales has reached $100 million!

Florida-based company Space Perspective offers a cheaper option for space tourists on its Spaceship Neptune - a balloon-shaped
pressurized capsule - for $125,000 a seat but will ascend only 19 miles, much short of the boundary of space, and weightlessness at
100 km. Still, 300 seats for 2024 have all been sold.

Elon Musk's space tourism company Axiom will arrange flights to the ISS in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule in early 2022. The cost
could be $55 million per seat as journey is too long and involves eight-night's stay. Flights through other space tourism services will
also cost at least a few hundred thousand dollars.

How soon can we travel to space? The space tourism can begin very soon. After two more final suborbital test flights in late 2021
Virgin Galactic will have clearance for regular commercial flights from 2022.

It plans 400 flights per year and already has 600 active reservations. Even Elon Musk has bought a ticket for future Virgin Galactic
spaceflight. Ticket sales are open to general public on email astronauts@blueorigin.com.

Blue Origin already has a Federal Aviation Administration license for human space travel. If the first crewed flights are successful, the
public can start space tourism flights in early 2022. The company will have to schedule more trips and build more rockets.

Tourists should be of 5'0"- 6'4"height, weigh 110-223 pounds and capable of climbing seven flights of stairs (the height of the launch
tower) in under 90 seconds. The aspiring civilians must have loads of money, and shell out billions in charity. One seat was auctioned
for $28 million to Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands who became the youngest person ever to visit space.

Since 2001, the space tourism industry has struggled to make spaceflight commercially viable. So far, only a handful of people have
been able to pay their way into space. Now, the richest people in the world can avail regular private space flights.

SpaceX will take missions to the Moon and also to Mars over years. The Moon landings could happen as soon as 2024.

What will it take to become a space tourist? Virgin Galactic will provide five-days training on how to be safe and comfortable during
high acceleration, and make the most of time spent in microgravity. Aerospace medical experts will offer advice, help and check pre-
flight fitness. The Axiom crew will be spending their nights in sleeping bags.

With world's billionaires engaged in an ongoing friendly competition civilian space travel will gain in popularity. Other space tourism
companies are striving to reach the Karman Line at 100 kilometres boundary instead of where Virgin Galactic currently flies to.

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin competed to go suborbital first. Successfully launching the first space tourism flight will be another
fierce competition. And taking space tourism to the masses will be the last and the defining competition.

Future: Space tourism will become a reality in 2022 but aspirants need to choose Blue Origin/Virgin Galactic only to travel to the edge
of space for experiencing zero gravity.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from New Delhi Times.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 HT Digital Streams Ltd.

www.newdelhitimes.com
Cita de fuente (MLA9)
"Space tourism to become a regular feature soon." New Delhi Times, 9 Aug. 2021, p. NA. Gale In Context: Global Issues,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A671218536/GIC?u=cbabeque&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=64fec747. Accessed 9 Feb. 2024.
Número de documento de Gale: GALE|A671218536