Space tourism is really coming, do you want to go?
Relying on the power of science and technology, starting from looking up, the vast starry sky is no longer far away.
On January 28, the State Council New Office held a press conference. At the press conference, the China National Space Administration released the fifth space white paper - "China's Aerospace in 2021". According to the China National Space Administration, the space application industry will be cultivated and expanded in the next five years to support high-quality economic and social development. Promote the deep integration of space applications and digital economy, enrich application scenarios, and innovate business models. Facing the development of the industry and the region and the diversified needs of the public, we will deepen the comprehensive application of communication, navigation and remote sensing information. Accelerate the transfer and transformation of aerospace technology achievements to the economy and society, and cultivate and develop new space economy formats such as space tourism, space biopharmaceuticals, space debris removal, and space testing.
"Cultivate the development of space tourism" this expression stirred everyone's nerves, encyclopedia explained that "space tourism" - based on people's ideals of traveling in space, to travel to space, to provide people with an unprecedented experience, the latest and most exciting is that you can enjoy the beautiful scenery of space, while also experiencing the feeling of weightlessness, these two experiences can only be enjoyed in space.
Whether it is for wealth or dreams, an era of human beings rushing to space has come, the world's richest people have spent huge sums of money into space, and competition has also pushed mankind to space.
Ready Player One Three tech giants compete in space
Tesla and Space X founder Musk, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Bezos, and Virgin Galactic founder Branson, after three billionaires started their own business empires, ambitious plans to open a new era of commercial space travel, interestingly, this space race that is still continuing to catch up with you and the extended "space contempt chain" is just composed of the post-50s, post-60s and post-70s.
Richard branson
When: July 11, 2021
How: Aboard Virgin Galactic's Unity spacecraft
On the same day, 70-year-old Virgin Galactic founder Branson rode his own company's spaceship, penetrated the atmosphere at an altitude of 80 kilometers at the "edge of the universe", looked down at the earth and felt the wonderful experience of zero gravity for several minutes and then successfully returned to the ground. The flight ended quickly, but the billionaire founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 to experience the moment for himself, lifting the curtain on an era. At that time, he thought that he would realize his dream in a few years, but he did not expect to wait for 17 years.
In 2014, Virgin Galactic's space shuttle had an accident during a test flight, causing the aircraft to disintegrate and a pilot to die; in 2019, there was also an accident in which the metal insulation film was wrongly installed, fortunately there were no casualties. This is the fourth Earth low orbit flight of a Virgin Galactic vehicle since 2018.
Branson flew first, and also took the aura of "the first person to enter space on his own flying machine" into his own hands. As early as early June, after Bezos announced that he would step down as CEO of Amazon, he announced his plan to take his company's Blue Origin rocket to the sky on July 20, but Branson then advanced the flight plan, nine days earlier than Bezos, and preemptively landed in space.
Jeff Bezos
When: July 20, 2021
How: Aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket
Although Branson snatched the aura of the first flight, this did not affect Bezos's interest. He chose July 20 because it is a milestone in the history of spaceflight for the United States and humanity. On July 20, 1969, american astronauts successfully landed on the moon aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft, and Neil Armstrong, the first person to land on the moon, said the classic phrase "This is a small step for me personally, but a big step for mankind." Bezos, who was 5 years old at the time, also watched the moon landing broadcast in front of the TV. And when the Blue Origin rocket carried four passengers to the sky on July 20, 2021, Bezos excitedly said after experiencing nearly 4 minutes of weightlessness on the edge of outer space that he had achieved his boyhood dream: "Everyone asked me if I was nervous, I was just curious, wondering what I could feel. ”
Someone flipped through the 1982 interview with the media at the time when because of the then 18-year-old Bezos, which proved his teenage dream. At that time, the childish high school graduates talked about their dream of building a star hotel theme park that can accommodate 23 million people in the future, and the ultimate dream is to evacuate humanity from the earth.
Since founding Blue Origin in 2000, Bezos is said to have invested about $7.5 billion in personal money. In addition, Bezos has resigned as CEO of Amazon, faded out of the day-to-day operations of the e-commerce and cloud computing giants, and has enough energy to shift to blue origin product development, so "this is just a small step in the blue origin plan." What we really want to do is build reusable space vehicles, build a space path, and let our children build the future. ”
Elon Musk
In the global attention and hot discussion, perhaps only Musk is dismissive of Bezos's space travel, repeatedly denigrating Bezos for not really entering outer space: "Oh, he is just walking around the edge of the earth." Compared with Branson's flight at the bottom edge of the low orbit 80 kilometers above the ground, Bezos's flight altitude has been raised to the 62-mile (about 100 kilometer) outer space and atmosphere dividing line , the Carmen Line , from this point of view, Musk mocked Bezos just at the edge of the Earth, and there is no problem.
Interestingly, Musk and Bezos also had a meeting in 2004 to discuss each other's space dreams. But in the time that followed, the two companies were not only competing for the same resources and recruiting the same talent, but also developing similar products and competing for the same NASA bidding project. Behind Musk's arrogance is SpaceX's technical underpinnings. For now, at least, SpaceX has always held a stranglehold on Blue Origin: grabbed the lease of the Apollo Lunar Program rocket launch platform LC-39A, won NASA's $2.9 billion Artemis manned lunar landing program, and pioneered the launch of a recyclable rocket and a manned spaceflight station... Each blue origin is years or more behind. Just the day before Bezos lifted off, SpaceX completed the first test launch of the heaviest first-stage rocket in history, and the significance of this rocket in the history of aviation is to show the world the technical feasibility of large-scale interstellar cargo and even immigration in the future.
For Musk, his commercial aviation plan was hatched earlier. Back in 2018, Space X announced that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa would be a private passenger on the company's first circumlunar flight and would be in space on a BFR rocket. But its SpaceX has always been in the state of "time management master", and has not yet announced his plans to personally go to heaven, but he has set the space travel target in a higher Earth orbit, compared to the previous two companies only in low orbit to experience space, into the International Space Station may be considered a real space travel. In addition, Musk also announced the Mars colonization plan earlier, he envisioned that 1,000 starship rockets would be built, launching 3 per day, and finally sending 1 million humans to "the fastest about 5 years, the slowest 10 years" .
They all want to see it
In addition to the above three aviation giants, there is also a group of "old boys" who want to go to heaven now have their eyes on the vast universe!
Dennis Tito
Date: April 30, 2001
How: Take the Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station
Such a crazy move of space tourism began in 2001, when on April 30 of that year, 60-year-old American businessman Dennis Tito successfully became the first Earthlings to travel to space. It is said that in order to travel to space, he was trained in Moscow, especially in centrifugal training, the standard exceeded the centrifugal state of space, the blood rushed straight to the brain, dizzy, and even temporarily blind.
At that time, Dennis Tito paid $20 million to fly from Baikonur to the International Space Station on the "Soyuz-TM32" spacecraft, becoming the first space tourist, the spacecraft docked with the service module, he began to live in space, in space, Tito through the porthole of the space station, seeing thousands of scenes of space, he excitedly took pictures and videos, and finally his dream came true. Nine days later, Tito landed in the spaceship's return capsule.
Mark Shuttleworth
Date: 25 April 2002
In 2002, "Bill Gates of Africa" South African billionaire Mark Shuttleworth became the second person in space tourism, and at 9:26 on April 25 of that year (14:26 Beijing time on April 25), the Russian "SoyuzTM-34" spacecraft carried 2 astronauts and Mark Shuttleworth to the Space International Space Station.
Shuttleworth said: "I was very fortunate to be able to go to space to experience, stand in space and watch some things, only to find that life is short, the world is small. When I returned to Earth, I felt that I should do something that had a positive impact on mankind and the world. ”
Gregory Olson
Date: October 1, 2005
Like the world's top two space tourists, American billionaire Tito and South African businessman Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen, the world's third space tourist, paid a huge $20 million trip for the trip. Unlike the previous two, Olsen is not only a dream and a sightseeing, but more importantly, the realization of the scientific mission.
On October 1, 2005, Gregory Olson took off aboard the Soyuz TMA-7 manned spacecraft and arrived at the space station on October 3. In just eight days on the space station, he conducted 10 scientific experiments, including crystal culture and measurements of the Earth's atmospheric humidity. He hopes his experiments will prove that the infrared camera can help scientists study conditions on distant planets, such as the formation of ozone in the air and plant growth. Speaking about the space tour, Gregory Olson said "it was a trip of scientific significance" and wanted people to call it a "scientific researcher" and not just a "space tourist."
Anush Ansari
Date: September 18, 2006
Anush Ansari On September 18, 2006, Anoshe Anzari, a wealthy Iranian woman and American telecommunications magnate, flew to the International Space Station on the Russian "Soyuz TMA-9" manned spacecraft to fulfill his childhood space dream. Ansari's dream come true also cost $20 million, and she was the world's first female space tourist.
Charles Simone
Date: April 7, 2007 / March 28, 2009
On April 7, 2007, American software engineer Charles Simeone boarded the Russian "Soyuz TMA-10" manned spacecraft to the International Space Station and stayed for 15 days. Two years later, on March 28, 2009, Simeone went to the space station again, becoming the world's first tourist to visit space twice.
Richard Galliot
Date: October 12, 2008
From October 12 to 24, 2008, Richard Garriott, a wealthy British-American computer game company, boarded the Russian "Soyuz TMA-13" manned spacecraft and traveled to the International Space Station for the most memorable week of his life. Traveling in space was Richard Galliot's childhood dream, a trip he spent $30 million on.
Guy Lalibert
Date: September 30, 2009
On September 30, 2009, Cirque du Soleil of Canada owner Guy Lalibert and two astronauts took off aboard the Russian "Soyuz TMA-16" manned spacecraft, representing the global circus community and the Joker on board the International Space Station. He paid $40 million for the trip, leaving and lifting off, wearing the iconic red clown nose.
Gerald Isaacman
When: September 2021
How: Take SpaceX's Dragon Ship
Gerald Isaacman, an entrepreneur who made his fortune in payment processing, is also a flying geek who has participated in air shows as a pilot and took pleasure flying fighter jets. Now, Isaacman is the commander of the world's first universal spaceflight mission. The billionaire bought all four seats on a spaceX-run mission aimed at raising awareness for St. Jude's Children's Hospital; among the selected crew members was Hayley Arceneaux, a survivor who had suffered from childhood cancer.
When Gerald returned, he learned that he had to quarantine: "I returned to Earth, and my family became a new crown patient. ”
Maezawa Yusaku
When: December 2021 and 2023
How: Fly on a Russian Soyuz carrier rocket and spaceX's Starship spacecraft via Space Adventures
In 2004, Yusaku Ze founded ZOZOTOWN, an e-commerce website specializing in clothing, and slowly became a leading company in the Japanese fashion industry, and in 2017, the billionaire resigned as president and began to let go of himself, becoming Asia's top art collector. He spent $57 million and $110 million on two works by American graffiti artist Basquiat. The journey to space certainly meets his spending standards. It is a dream from childhood, and it has a value that money cannot measure, of course, how much money is willing.
Maezawa Yusaku said of this experience: "If all the important people in the world go to the universe and then look at the earth from the side of the universe and hold an international conference, the earth will definitely become a better and more peaceful place." ”
For the Japanese billionaire, entering the International Space Station was just the beginning of his space dream. As planned, in 2023 he will charter SpaceX's entire spacecraft for a grand trip to the moon.
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