Blue Origin has successfully launched humans into space today on its New Shepard rocket. Wally Funk, Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, and Oliver Daemen all traveled above the 100km boundary that marks the internationally accepted von Karman line, the point at which the atmosphere of Earth is said to give way to space. Richard Branson’s flight a few days ago reached 85km above sea level, which is high enough to qualify as space under NASA and the US Air Force’s definition of the term. Depending on how you choose to count, Bezos is either the first billionaire in space or the second. Funk and Daemen are, respectively, the oldest (82) and youngest (18) people to travel to space.
The first Blue Origin human flight was a success in two ways. First and most importantly, the capsule touched down safely. Secondly, the Blue Origin rocket again landed successfully and can be re-used in the future. In and of itself, catapulting two billionaires into space (or near-space) may not seem like much of an achievement, but this is a watershed moment in the history of spaceflight. For the first time in the history of our species, space is available to more than a bare handful of individuals who undertake months of rigorous training to prepare for the flight. The video below is queued up to the beginning of Blue Origin’s post-flight press conference.
Here, the goals of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic diverge. Virgin Galactic is focused on space tourism. Blue Origin has built the New Shepard explicitly for the suborbital space tourism market, but the company has another rocket, New Glenn, intended for government and commercial satellite launches. New Glenn has had multiple development slips and the rocket is currently scheduled for launch no earlier than Q4 2022. Successfully launching the Bezos’, Funk, and Daemen into space distracts from this kind of problem by notching a genuine win in Blue Origin’s belt.
The significance of Bezos and Branson’s flight is not that we tossed a couple of billionaires into space for a few minutes. Since the dawn of the space age, virtually all access to space has been controlled and funded by various governments. Now, manned suborbital flights are available to (and from) the private sector. It’s hard to argue this is a bad thing, considering how completely Congress has sabotaged the SLS. Forced by law to use archaic Space Shuttle components, NASA has committed to paying $146 million per RS-25 engine. The SLS uses four. To add insult to injury, the RS-25–which was a reusable engine when originally built by NASA and deployed on the Space Shuttle–will drop into the ocean during the SLS’ launch.
The Congressional decision to treat NASA more like a jobs program while mandating the use of outdated and incredibly expensive components has created an opportunity for private industry to pick up the slack. The work done by companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic shows how the industry is rapidly evolving.
For now, space tourism remains incredibly expensive and available to only a handful of people. This may well change in the future if suborbital flights prove popular and more companies experiment with different vehicle designs. The fact that commercial space travel is currently limited to a few minutes in suborbital flight doesn’t change how this is a momentous occurrence. Granted, the pool of potential tourists who could afford to pony up this kind of cash is still small, but Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have still widened the frontiers of space flight in proving the possibility of private sector crewed launches.
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