Aerospace, that's what heroes do, ordinary people that's the rhythm of finding death. But in Fast and Furious, we also realized the "dream" of the car in space. However, what Lanyu Cultural Industrial Tourism Design Institute wants to bring today is the real civilians in space in reality, and we toiling masses are one step closer to space, but most people still have no chance. Because of this civilian we are talking about the body, not the wealth, the cost of a trip of $55 million, no civilian can afford. Either way, we'll eventually have a chance to go into space, and that's Musk's space travel.
At 11:17 a.m. local time on April 8, with the successful launch of the "Five Hands" rocket Falcon 9, the 8-day space station tour of the three tourists began.
It is worth mentioning that none of the flight was active professional astronauts, and all the tourists paid $55 million (about 350 million yuan) for tickets (one of them was an executive company employee who did not pay). The rockets and spaceships they flew on also came from commercial companies.
This means that for the first time in history! The International Space Station ushered in an all-private, all-commercial tour. Musk also wrote his own history again, with Falcon 9 completing the first fully private manned space mission.
Netizens excitedly said, "Send me to space" and "go to the moon".
1
The international space welcomes the first group of tourists
On the morning of April 8, local time, two days later than originally planned, the five-handed Falcon 9 rocket and the Third-hand Dragon spacecraft, which had been standing on the launcher for many days, began to move. Three hours before the launch, four astronauts made their official appearance and took a Tesla ride to the 39A launch pad.
At 11:17, the long-awaited scene arrived. Ignite, fire!
The Falcon 9 rocket took 4 passengers to the International Space Station, and the control center applauded at the scene. After 2 minutes and 40 seconds, the first stage thruster separates from the previous stage.
After about 8 minutes, the first stage enters the completion of combustion. After 9 minutes and 30 seconds, the rocket stage successfully landed on the sea recovery ship, instantly becoming "six hands".
Several passengers in the spacecraft also waved to celebrate
After 12 minutes and 07 seconds, the Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket's second stage.
From then on, the Dragon spacecraft will head full speed towards the International Space Station.
It is expected that at 7:45 Beijing time tonight, the docking with the International Space Station will be completed.
In fact, at 20:15 Beijing time on April 9, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station, and the International Space Station welcomed the first pure tourist crew in history. There was a small episode during the docking, the Dragon spacecraft's centerline camera video link was a bit wrong, and for safety reasons the Dragon spacecraft stayed at a distance of 20 meters from the opposite interface for 45 minutes
Four space visitors then opened their doors to enter the International Space Station, where they would stay on the International Space Station for 8 days.
During these 8 days, they will participate in scientific and educational work with astronauts, completing about 25 different experiments, including more than 100 hours of research, covering human research, life and physical sciences, technological demonstrations and Earth observations.
2
Fly the whole crew
Of the four people on this flight, the youngest age is 50 years old, the oldest age is 71 years old, and they have extraordinary identities in the civilian squad!
| First, the team leader and mission commander is Mike Lopez-Alegria, a retired NASA astronaut.
He spent 258 days in space, flying 3 space missions and 1 international space station mission. It is also the record holder for the most spacewalks in NASA - 10 spacewalks, lasting a total of 67 hours. Now, he is an employee of Axiom Space, the executive company.
| second, it was American real estate tycoon Larry Connor.
At the age of 71, he is also an experienced pilot who loves off-road racing. This time, he served as the co-pilot of the Dragon spacecraft flight. And this old man seems to have a very personality. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, he gave employees all of the $1.6 million he made in the stock market and said: This is what they deserve!
| the third visitor to the International Space Station was Mark Pathy, a Canadian investor.
He was born in 1969 and is not young anymore. In addition to his investments, Mark is a philanthropist who has raised $5.5 million in donations for a number of healthcare facilities. He is now the second Canadian civilian to land in space and will participate in the completion of research projects at the University of Canada and the Montreal Children's Medical Research Institute on this mission.
| the last to be introduced is Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe.
Born in 1958, he is a former F-16 fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force in addition to his status as an entrepreneur. From 2013 to 2019, he worked as a lecturer at the Israel Air Force Flight Academy. Experiments in space include brain headphones from Israeli startups that study how the brain responds to spaceflight and life in space, as well as some scientific equipment from the nonprofit Ramon Foundation. Excellent strength coupled with tough appearance, proper space F4, at a not small age can have such a spirit of adventure, it is worth learning!
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The space tourism project is under construction
In addition to the successful transportation of Space X, there is also a business that must be mentioned! That's Axiom Space. You know, since last year, NASA has been planning to replace the International Space Station with a commercial space station.
Axiom Space, which organized the isleted of the is a commercial tour of the International Space Station. The name of this company is not loud, but it is not small. In 2016, Michael T. Suffredini and Kam Ghaffarian founded the company, which includes commercial manned space travel, space exploration research, and more.
Michael T. Suffredini, as president and CEO of the company, is a key figure in the construction of the International Space Station, having worked at NASA for 30 years.
From 2005 to 2015, he served as Director of the International Space Station Construction Project, completing the development and operation of the International Orbital Laboratory.
In fact, many of Axiom's employees have worked at NASA. Axiom and NASA have also been close. In 2020, NASA signed a $140 million contract with Axiom Space to allow it to add commercial modules to the International Space Station. Construction of the first additional living module (AxH1) is now also underway, with launches expected in 2024 and finally being completed in 2028.
And this mission is Axiom's substantial step in building a commercial space station. As can be seen from the official renderings, this commercial space station will have an observation deck where people can stand here and watch the space scenery.
Imagine if you could go to space in your lifetime, overlook the earth, and enjoy the scenery of space, it would be wonderful!
4
The battle for the status of space
When it comes to space exploration, people often think of Space X founded by Musk for the first time, and it is difficult to connect Jeff Bezos with it. He is better known as the founder of Amazon and the former richest man in the world.
But in fact, he has another identity, that is, the founder of Blue Origin. The company was founded in 2000, two years before SpaceX was founded in California. In 2015, Blue Origin became the first company to launch a rocket over the internationally recognized Kárán Line, the boundary of space, and land again for recycling.
On the morning of July 20, 2021, Bezos successfully flew into space aboard the new Shepard rocket. Enter the edge of space about 105 kilometers above the ground, and the whole journey lasts about 11 minutes. The new Shepard rocket was developed and manufactured by Blue Origin.
On July 11, 2021, 70-year-old British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, boarded the Unity spacecraft of his founding company, Virgin Galactic, into space and landed smoothly.
Branson thus became the founder of the first commercial space company to go into space, and the first private spacemaker to enter the edge of space.
At present, the space travel market can be described as a three-legged stand!
At present, there are three companies dedicated to sub-orbital and orbital commercial space tourism flights, namely Branson's Virgin Galactic, Bezos's Blue Origin and Musk's SpaceX.
From a technical point of view, the most powerful at present is Musk's SpaceX, which developed the Falcon series rocket to achieve the reusable rocket arrow body, and undertook the task of replenishing the cargo of nasa's International Space Station.
In October 2012, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft delivered cargo to the International Space Station, ushering in a new era of private spaceflight. In the summer of 2020, SpaceX conducted its first manned flight test, successfully launching and sending back two NASA astronauts and their spacecraft. This year, self-service space travel for all tourists has been realized.
Bezos' blue origin is more mysterious, with less public technical achievements, while Branson's Virgin Galactic started earlier, but the technology has always been bottlenecked, and it has only reached suborbital flight mode.
Unlike Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, SpaceX is aimed at deeper, farther and more expensive orbital flights and interstellar tourism.
Obviously, before the International Space Station is decommissioned in 2030, NASA will open its doors for commercial space companies to support them in building one commercial space station after another. This is expected to save NASA at least $1 billion a year. On the other hand, the construction of the "Tiangong" of the continental space station has reached a critical year. Up to now, five missions have been successfully implemented in the key technology verification phase, and the Shenzhou 13 astronaut crew plans to return to the ground in April.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars or even tens of millions of dollars in exchange for a few minutes of experience is still unthinkable for most people, and space travel is really just a game for the rich.
But space travel is entering a period of infancy, and it is foreseeable that as low-cost rocket launch recovery technology matures, more and more money will join the competition for space travel.
Space travel fares will become cheaper, and space travel could one day reach millions of homes.
This article is transferred from the new media black technology