Space tourism sounds amazing doesn't it. I mean who wouldn't want to travel to space one in their lives.
In this post, we will be discussing space tourism- it's history, milestones, major companies, and pros and cons.
Let's dive in.
Space tourism has two main types- Orbital and suborbital. suborbital flights take you to the Karman line which is 100 km above space. This flight is about a few minutes long.
An orbital flight takes you around the earth and takes about a few days!
Space tourism was first conducted in the year 2001. The first space tourist was a gentleman named Dennis Tito who paid about $20 million! This flight was conducted by the company Russian Soyuz. He was carried to ISS. And this was an orbital flight, of course.
After Tito, Mark Shuttleworth did another orbital flight in 2002. And in 2006, Anousheh ansari became the first woman to take an orbital flight.
Suborbital space travel came into the picture more recently. The first commercial suborbital flight was Galactic, launched by Virgin Galactic on June 29, 2023. The flight carried a crew of four.
Another important milestone was SpaceShipOne which could carry about three people to space at once.
At present, the companies which plan to invest in and develop space tourism in the long term include Blue Origin, Space X and Virgin Galactic which mainly focus on suborbital travel.
Pros:
- Space tourism can provide non specialists to also have the experience to travel to space.
- If the sector flourishes, it could generate thousands upon thousands of jobs.
- We gain a new perspective on out earth when we view it from the outside.
- The launching of these the space ships causes a lot of air pollution.
- Ordinary people cannot afford space travel.
- Prolong stay in the outer space can cause health damage due to reasons such as radiation exposure.
- Another issue is a bit ethical, imagine spending a fortune on sending the rich on a tour to space while the poor sit here, lacking food.
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