I’m sure we’ve all seen a few clips or at least heard of Jeff Bezos’s trip into space, or you might have seen the trailers for the Netflix documentary “Countdown” for SpaceX’s all civilian space journey. We have ushered in a new age where we can now go to space by booking tickets through private spaceflight companies.
This all marks a new era of space travel as it shows a shift from the conventional era of space where there have just been astronauts that are being sent up by wealthy nations looking to broaden their frontiers of science and exploration. We have come a long way from America’s start to space exploration by sending the first astronauts to the moon to sending all civilian space shuttles into space.
Space travel
Technology has vastly changed and developed to make space flights more safe and free from disasters such as the Challenger incident in 1984 where the shuttle blew up and killed all seven passengers including civilian Christa McAuliffe who was a teacher selected by NASA. This disaster marked a change in space travel as it resulted in crew death and a loss of around three million dollars. NASA spent their time redesigning their shuttles and boosters for the next three years before they sent people up again. This is important today because, despite all of the advances in technology and the changes made, there is still a decent risk of something going wrong which is even more important now because it is civilians paying to go into space, and the responsible party will be these private companies. The matter remains that space travel is risky, and something as small as a loose seal can still result in catastrophe.
The space travel industry today is facing some controversy as there are many suffering from the pandemic, and our planet is getting polluted and ravaged. The recent flights have led to some scalding comments from the UN Secretary-General as he talked about the obvious inequalities in wealth and how the pandemic has only exacerbated this. Antonio Guterres stated, “When they see billionaires joyriding to space while millions go hungry on earth … the people we serve and represent may lose faith not only in their governments and institutions but in the values that have animated the work of the United Nations for over 75 years.”
Space tourism
The space industry has now gone from being primarily a function of the government to the public interest and is seeing more and more outside investments into this growing field. The industry is something the super rich such as Bezos and Musk have grown and built up through their companies Blue Origin and SpaceX, respectively. Now, you can procure your ticket to space for an undisclosed amount of money. With technology improving and competition rising, there could be a day when the middle class can afford such luxuries.
