Space tourism today

Alluring space

Perhaps every boy as a child dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Dip into the abyss of space, swim in weightlessness, visit other planets and maybe even meet extraterrestrial life - such an adventure would capture even the most mundane person. And now, in times of great discoveries, bold ideas, and daring decisions, space flights are no longer the prerogative of military and scientists, and are becoming accessible to space tourists.

The theme of space tourism is very interesting, and today I will reveal it in more detail. I will tell you about who the first space tourists were, what they went to space on, what kind of development space tourism has today, and how you can become a space tourist.

First space travelers

The first space tourist was a successful entrepreneur, millionaire Dennis Tito. An American of Italian descent, he was born on August 8, 1940 in New York, in the Queens district. In 1962, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the College of Engineering at New York University. In 1964, he received a Master of Science degree in engineering technology at the Rensalor Polytechnic Institute. In 1970 he graduated from the school of management of Aderson at the University of California at Los Angeles. Odec two sons and one daughter.
')
Back in 2000, Tito was selected by MirCorp as a space tourist for a flight to the Mir station, and underwent a training course at the RGNII CPC under the program of a space flight participant. However, this flight did not take place, and on November 19, 2000, the training had to be interrupted due to the decision taken by the Government of the Russian Federation to flood the “Peace”.

On December 28, 2000, by the decision of the GMVK, Dennis Tito was included in the main crew of the first Russian expedition to visit the ISS together with Talgat Musabaev and Yury Baturin. On January 30, 2001, he entered into a contract for a flight to the ISS with Rosaviakosmos (with the participation of Space Adventures). From February 12 to April 10, 2001, the crew received special training, and on April 28, 2001, the Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft flew into space with the first space tourist on board. The flight lasted 7 days 22 hours 4 minutes 8 seconds and ended on May 6 and cost Tito $ 20 million.

After Dennis Tito, several more tourists flew into space on Russian ships: a businessman from South Africa Mark Shuttleworth (April 25, 2002), an American businessman Gregory Olsen (October 1, 2005), an American of Iranian origin Anoushe Ansari (September 18, 2006), an American billionaire of Hungarian origin Charles Simoni (April 7, 2007).

Space open to all

On May 18, 1996, the X-Prize Foundation established a $ 10 million prize for the construction of a suborbital aircraft. This prize was designed to stimulate the interest of private companies for space exploration. The name Ansari received the prize in honor of Anyusha Ansari, who, together with her maiden Amir Ansari, became the main sponsor of the foundation.

The prize was to receive a team that fulfills four conditions:

1. With own money, an aircraft will be designed, built and successfully launched, which will deliver three adults to an altitude of 100 kilometers.
2. The device will successfully return to Earth with healthy and unharmed passengers.
3. Within two weeks, the unit will make a repeat flight.
4. Both flights must be completed before January 1, 2005.

In the fight for the prize team won the Tier One. With her ship SpaceShipOne she made the first test flight on September 29th. Not without problems that could lead to a catastrophe. Even before the launch of the rocket engine, immediately after separation from the carrier aircraft, the device moved 90 ° to the right, the same thing happened after the first attempt to align SpaceShipOne. From the second attempt, the pilot still managed to level the spacecraft and turn on the engine.

And 10 seconds before the engine was turned off, the pilot had to switch to a backup control system, as the main one, for some unknown reason, failed. Despite all this, the flight was completed successfully. The entire flight lasted 24 minutes, for 3.5 minutes, passengers and the pilot could feel weightlessness.

The second flight took place on October 4, 2004, and on November 6, 2004 the award ceremony took place.
To date, Virgin Galactic has designed the SpaceShipTwo, which will replace SpaceShipOne in 2010. The new device is much better and more reliable than the previous one. The creation of both vehicles was led by designer Bart Rutan, the creator of the famous Voyager aircraft.

SpaceShipTwo can accommodate 2 pilots and 6 passengers. The ships will be launched from a special spaceport Spaceport America, which is being built in the middle of the desert in the state of New Mexico. With the help of a powerful rocket engine, SpaceShipTwo will be able to rise to an altitude of 110 km, to then proceed to a free fall, planning down to the landing point. For about 6 minutes, passengers will be able to enjoy weightlessness, as well as observe the rounded disk of the Earth and the black abyss of space .

It is worth such entertainment "some" 200 thousand. US dollars. But in spite of the price, by now Virgin Galactic has already sold more than 200 tickets to the board of its not yet built vehicle. Another 85 thousand people who registered in the queue for future flights declared their desire to fly. Tens of millions of dollars from future passengers have already been received by the company - this is clearly the commercial success of Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic.

Now we are witnessing how space exploration is reaching a new level and soon space travel will be available to more and more people. Who knows, maybe in a hundred years, each person can even go on an unimaginable journey by hitchhiking through the Galaxy, like the heroes of the notorious Douglas Adams novel.

PS See how the flight will look like on a SpaceShipTwo ship in this video: Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Animation .

Original: Space tourism today .