Others also question the purpose of space tourism. “These are technological achievements, there is no doubt about that,” said Kathryn Denning, an anthropologist and space ethics researcher at York University in Toronto. However, she suggests, “their most important achievement is broadcast and broadcast domination.”
So far, tickets to the edge of space in six figures—$200,000 or more—while booking an orbital expedition costs up to eight figures. The $200,000 price tag for a short flight tops annual income at about 90 percent of Americans. It’s hard not to notice it, especially at the time climate crisis, a pandemic, and growing awareness of inequality. Every seat on a suborbital flight is like a home that more than half a million Americans don’t use, or like the lifelong health care costs of a family while tens of millions don’t. health care, or as college tuition increases when one majority of Americans do not have access to higher education.
“Every time someone flies in for $250,000, while in that same country, kids don’t get to eat and people line up along the border, it’s really hard for me to figure it out,” to be honest. , Denning said.
But if the 20th century aviation industry is any guide, while these flights will start out as luxuries, prices will fall and space accessibility will expand beyond those super rich when markets open and technology and infrastructure improve. “If you rewind 100 years ago, not your everyday people are taking advantage of airlines but are just beginning to figure out how to fly routes around the world. But today, for a very reasonable amount of money, anyone can get on a plane, and they don’t have to think twice about it. It is very safe. It was probably a vision of space,” Bernstein said.
Nor is it the first time that a handful of wealthy individuals have played an outsized role in US space activities. “In fact, billionaires like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller funded the largest astronomical telescopes in the country during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was the Guggenheim family that was Robert’s main source of funding. Goddard, who pioneered the first rocket in America,” said Alex MacDonald, chief economist at NASA.
And on the other hand, MacDonald points out, NASA has been supporting and investing in the burgeoning private space industry for decades, signing numerous contracts for equipment and services, including with the fledgling SpaceX time, will turn 20 years old next spring. NASA is currently investing in Blue Origin and two other companies to develop designs for a commercial space station to track the ISS. It is part of long term plan to support the private sector in low Earth orbit, while reducing costs and freeing up more of the agency’s budget for long-distance exploration.
While the first six decades of spaceflight belonged to highly trained astronauts, passengers can now fly just for the sake of breathtaking views, or entertainment, or challenge. And while fares are high, these early private flights have given way to a handful of people who never had the chance. The head of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 is Jared Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of payment processing company Shift4Payments, and he sponsored tickets for three other travelers. Artist and scientist Sian Proctor won a contest, Chris Sembroski received his ticket from a friend who won a lottery-like contest, and Hayley Arceneaux was invited as an ambassador for Research Hospital Children of St. Jude, an organization whose mission has raised $200 million — a charitable cause that could become a model for several other private flights. Virgin Galactic announced on November 24, Keisha Schahaff, a health and energy coach in Antigua, won two seats in a sweepstakes that raised $1.7 million for Space for Humanity, a non-profit organization. Denver-based profit, works to expand access to space with its Citizen Astronaut Program.
