Man at all times wanted to fly to the stars. This desire is reflected in legends and myths. Similar legends exist among all peoples. Icarus rose to the sun and collapsed when the sun melted the wax holding its wings together. Alexander of Macedon flew on magic horses and safely returned to the earth. Even the prophet Muhammad flew on a magical creature. Literary heroes Cyrano de Bergerac flew into space on a firework rocket, Baron Munchausen on a cannonball. Space tourism is associated with the development of space.
From Kaluga to Baikonur
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, a modest teacher from Kaluga, became the founder of the theory of space flights, the representative of the philosophy of cosmism. In his works, he wrote that humanity will not remain on Earth, but will spread over the planets and artificial objects of the solar system, will carry the light of reason into the universe. This path is long and difficult, but the sum of these sufferings is invisible in the ocean of happiness of the whole cosmos.
Tsolkovsky wrote that:
Cosmos contains only joy
And "radiant humanity" is worthy of this joy
In the Soviet Union, astronautics developed rapidly.
In 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched in the Soviet Union. And in 1961, the first man Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin flew into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome . Group flights were made, the first interplanetary stations were launched to the Moon, Venus and Mars. In 1965, Alexei Leonov made his first spacewalk. Each year there were new breakthroughs in space exploration. Samples of lunar soil were obtained, an orbital space station was created. Cosmonauts worked on it for a long time.
The international cooperation
Other countries also engaged in space research. 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 Apollo 10 American spacecraft reached the moon and the astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin stayed on the moon in the Sea of Tranquility for about 21 hours!
Launched Japanese, Chinese, European satellites.
In 1975, the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft were docked. This required a lot of preparatory work. It was necessary to unify the docking nodes, to achieve a single 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 the first astronauts arrived at the station. Since then, 57 expeditions have been made to the station. The 58th expedition is scheduled for November.
What it is?
In 1967, at the conference on cosmonautics, the idea of space tourism was first voiced.
And in 1986, the first space tourist was supposed to be Krista McCullif. But she died in the explosion of the American Challenger.
In 1990 and 1991, cosmonauts from Japan and the United Kingdom flew to the Soviet orbital station 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 turns around the Earth cost Tito $ 20 million.
Thus, Russia declared itself as a country of space tourism.
First space tourist
Dennis Tito (born in 1940) is an American multimillionaire, executive director of a major investment company. All his life he was interested in space and space technology. He was educated and worked for NASA. Tito funded major government space programs.
In 2001, he completed a full astronaut training course. The course included both physical training and engineering training, both for astronaut pilots. Tito learned how to control a ship by dock in manual mode. All this was necessary in case of emergency to control the ship in case of automation failure.
In orbit, Denis, not accustomed to zero gravity, pushed himself too sharply off the floor and hit the ceiling, breaking his head. Russian astronaut Talgat Musabaev gave him first aid and looked after him afterwards. Tito called him a nanny.
Despite this incident, Dennis Tito considers his flight the main and best event in his life.
Space tourists from other countries
Since the flight of Tito, only seven people have been in space. This is Mark Shuttleworth (South Africa), Gregory Olsen (USA), Anoushe Ansari (American of Iranian origin), Charles Shimonyi (American of Hungarian origin) Shimony flew into space twice. Richard Garriott (USA) and Guy Laliberte (Canada) also visited space.
In 2015, the English singer Sarah Brighton was supposed to fly into space. But she refused the flight.
Space tourism in which countries is developing? Of course in the USA.
Suborbital space flights
The cost of space flights is very high and therefore they are available only to units. 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 suborbital flight, the rocket does not reach the first cosmic velocity and does not enter orbit around the Earth. It moves along a vertical path and is at the highest point when the engine turns off. The ship freezes for several minutes, and the passengers find themselves in zero gravity for several minutes. The ship rises to a height of about 80 km.
Space tourism companies
These flights are much cheaper than full-fledged orbital flights. Since Dennis Tito, the cost of an orbital flight has risen from $ 20 million to almost $ 40 million. A suborbital flight will cost about $ 150,000.
The suborbital flight program has interested businessmen. In 2004, Virgin Galactic was founded by Richard Banson. This company developed the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. This is a reusable ship.
It will be delivered to a launch altitude of 20 km using a White Knight Two aircraft. And then it independently reaches an altitude of 80 km.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, created Blue Origin in 2000. She initially dealt with the launch of satellites. Further, the company took up the construction of the New Shepard spacecraft for space tourism. The first test flight took place in 2015. The New Shepard has huge portholes, which makes it possible to fully enjoy the fantastic views.
In 2014, the Russian company Cosmocourse for space tourism was created. It was created with the assistance of Roscosmos and the Skolkovo Foundation. The first launch is scheduled for 2021.
The company Ilona Mask SpaceX also works in the field 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 now in the testing phase.
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. One pilot died and another was seriously injured.
Flight safety for space tourism is a major concern. There is still a lot of work, both technical and legislative. It is necessary to develop the legal basis for this activity, to adopt laws guaranteeing the safety of space tourists.
But the desire of people to go into space is too strong. And we hope that space tourism and the problems of its development will not be ignored by the space industry.