Man has always wanted to fly to the stars. This desire is reflected in legends and myths. All peoples have similar legends. Icarus rose to the sun and collapsed as the sun melted the wax holding his wings together. Alexander the Great flew on magical horses and returned safely to earth. Even the prophet Muhammad flew on a magical creature. Literary heroes Cyrano de Bergerac flew into space on a fireworks rocket, Baron Munchausen on a cannonball. Space tourism is associated with the development of astronautics.
From Kaluga to Baikonur
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, a modest teacher from Kaluga, became the founder of the theory of space flight, a representative of the philosophy of cosmism. In his works, he wrote that humanity would not remain on Earth, but would settle on the planets and artificial objects of the solar system, and would carry the light of reason into the Universe. This path is long and difficult, but the sum of these sufferings is imperceptible in the ocean of happiness of the entire cosmos
Tsolkovsky wrote that:
Space contains only joy
And "radiant humanity" is worthy of this joy
Cosmonautics developed rapidly in the Soviet Union.
In 1957, the Soviet Union wasThe first artificial earth satellite was launched. And in 1961, the first man, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, flew into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Group flights were made, the first interplanetary stations to the Moon, Venus and Mars were launched. In 1965, Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk. Every year there were new breakthroughs in space exploration. Samples of lunar soil were obtained, an orbital space station was created. Astronauts worked on it for a long time.
International cooperation
Other countries also engaged in space exploration. American satellites and spacecraft were launched.
In 1968, an international agreement was signed on the rescue of astronauts, the return of astronauts and objects launched into outer space.
In 1969, the American Apollo 10 spacecraft reached the Moon and astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin stayed on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility for about 21 hours!
Japanese, Chinese, European satellites launched.
In 1975, the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft docked. This required a lot of preparatory work. It was necessary to unify the docking nodes, achieve a uniform composition of the atmosphere, and much more.
International Space Station
The International Space Station was created jointly by the Russian Space Agency and NASA. In 1998, the first Russian and American modules were sent, and in 2000 they arrived at the stationfirst astronauts. Since then, 57 expeditions have been made to the station. The 58th expedition is scheduled for November.
What is this?
In 1967, the idea of space tourism was first voiced at an astronautics conference.
And in 1986, the first space tourist was supposed to be Christa McCauliff. But she died in the explosion of the American Challenger.
Cosmonauts from Japan and Great Britain flew to the Soviet orbital station in 1990 and 1991 on projects financed by private business.
Space tourism in Russia officially started in 2001. Dennis Tito, the first officially recognized space tourist, went into space from Baikonur.
128 orbits around the Earth cost Tito $20 million.
Thus, Russia has declared itself as a country of space tourism.
First space tourist
Dennis Tito (born 1940) is an American multimillionaire, chief executive of the largest investment company. All his life he was interested in space and space technologies. He was educated and worked for NASA. Tito funded major government space programs.
In 2001, he completed a full cosmonaut training course. The course included both physical training and engineering training, both for cosmonaut pilots. Tito was trained to control the ship by docking in manual mode. All this was necessary in case of emergency to control the ship in case of failure of automation.
OnIn orbit, Denis, unaccustomed to weightlessness, kicked off the floor too sharply and hit the ceiling, crushing his head. Russian cosmonaut Talgat Mussabayev gave him first aid and looked after him afterwards. Tito called him nanny.
Despite this incident, Dennis Tito considers his flight the main and best event of his life.
Space tourists from other countries
Since Tito's flight, only seven people have been in space. These are Mark Shuttleworth (South Africa), Gregory Olsen (USA), Anoushe Ansari (American of Iranian origin), Charles Shimonyi (American of Hungarian origin) Shimonyi flew into space twice. Richard Garriott (USA) and Guy Laliberte (Canada) also visited space.
In 2015, English singer Sarah Brighton was supposed to fly into space. But she refused to fly.
Space tourism in which countries is developing? Of course, in the US.
Suborbital space flights
The cost of space flights is very high and therefore they are available only to a few. Therefore, for the development of space tourism, to reduce its cost, suborbital flights were proposed. Orbital and suborbital flight are very different from each other. During a suborbital flight, the rocket does not reach the first cosmic velocity and does not go into orbit around the Earth. It moves along a vertical path and reaches its highest point when the engine is turned off. The ship freezes for several minutes, and passengers duringseveral minutes are in a state of weightlessness. The ship rises to a height of about 80 km.
Space tourism companies
These flights are much cheaper than full-fledged orbital ones. Since Dennis Tito, the cost of an orbital flight has risen from $20 million to almost $40 million. And a suborbital flight will cost about $150,000
The program of suborbital flights interested businessmen. In 2004, Virgin Galactic was founded by Richard Benson. This company developed the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. This is a reusable ship.
It will be delivered to a launch altitude of 20 km using the White Knight Two aircraft. And then independently reaches a height of 80 km.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, created Blue Origin in 2000. She was originally engaged in launching satellites. The company then moved on to building the New Shepard spacecraft for space tourism. The first test flight took place in 2015. The New Shepard has huge windows that allow you to fully enjoy the fantastic views.
In 2014, the Russian company Cosmokurs was also created for space tourism. It was created with the assistance of Roskosmos and the Skolkovo Foundation. First launch scheduled for 2021.
Elon Musk's SpaceX is also working in the direction of space tourism. SpaceX has announced the launch of two space tourists to fly around the moon. For this, the Falcon carrier and the Dragon ship will be used. These works are currently being tested.
The rapid development of the space tourism industry at first aroused great enthusiasm. But there were a lot of technical problems. Launch dates were constantly postponed.
The SpaceShipTwo test ship crashed in the Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.
Safety for space tourism is one of the main concerns. There is still a lot of work to be done, both technical and legislative. It is necessary to develop the legal framework for this activity, to adopt laws that guarantee the safety of space tourists.
But people's desire to go to space is too strong. And let's hope that space tourism and the problems of its development will not be ignored by the space industry.
