Korolev prophesied that in the near future people will be able to travel into space through “union vouchers”, now a suborbital flight is becoming a reality. But no one could have imagined that dreams could become reality. Already at the moment, people can reserve a place to understand what suborbital space flights are. Just the same, the Russian Federation opened tourism into space in the very first year of the 19th century, 40 years after Gagarin flew into space.
Space travelers
In the last century, travel into space was possible only by official necessity. For professional astronauts, as well as astronauts, this was the main job. However, sometimes there were business trips. For example, at the beginning of winter 1990, the Japanese television company TBS organized a suborbital flight for journalist Toyohiro Akiyama to the Mir station. Previously thrice flew an American resident Charles Walker, an employee of McDonnell Douglas.
When the new millennium began, not only trained astronauts and astronauts can make their first suborbital flight, but tourists, as they wish. Millionaire Denis Tito was the first space traveler; he went to the ISS in the spring of 2001. Just at that time, the term "space tourism" appeared. In official circles, the term space flight participant is used, not the tourist. Other candidates also underwent preflight training. For example, this is Daisuke Enomoto, who was suspended due to kidney disease. He was replaced by Anyusha Ansari.
Shoulder to shoulder with professionals
Suborbital space flight begins with a fairly smooth start and light 3-4-fold overloads, after which an important factor of space enters the game - this is weightlessness. A couple of days, until the ship reaches its destination, the traveler will be able to enjoy the beauties of planet Earth from an altitude of more than 350 km and feel like a true astronaut.
After there is a docking and about a week's stay on the ISS. In general, the station in orbit was not intended to be used as a hotel, and tourist status does not imply any kind of service. At least, new astronauts do not count on similar yet. On the contrary, it is important for them to join the crew and feel what real astronauts are. But, of course, their training is not the same as that of professionals. And at first, NASA did not allow tourists to be sent to the station.
First tourist flight
However, when Denis Tito still flew into space with the support of Roscosmos, he was forbidden to be in the American part of the station. Day at the station is fast. And now again you need to board a spaceship, another one. It was on it that the members of the ISS main crew flew, and it is a spare boat for rescue operations.
When the brake engines that drive the ship out of orbit are turned on, there will be no more than 4 reloads. But sometimes there are situations when the ship enters a ballistic descent, where the crew feels a reboot of up to 10g, and even more periodically. Therefore, health is taken seriously and put forward many requirements.
Flight preparation
To ensure that the orbital and suborbital flight is favorable, the crew is checked for health problems. A space traveler must go through a medical board. Participants are determined by the same aspects as professionals: consider honey. map, organize a survey, take tests, after which they begin functional tests, check the vestibular apparatus. Finally, the candidate will be admitted to bench tests, namely a pressure chamber or a centrifuge and many others.
At least a suborbital flight, namely training, takes 6 months. During this period, the participant teaches the unit of the Soyuz spacecraft, studies the nuances of weightlessness in the water basin and on a special aircraft, takes part in survival in sea training, as well as in the forest. This is all necessary if the landing is abnormal.
Health Check Before Traveling
Doctors joke that there are no completely healthy patients, there are those who were poorly examined. Therefore, almost every person finds some kind of deviation. Risks are divided according to the level of impact on the program of the flight itself. It is one thing if this is solely due to the well-being of the tourist. This happened, for example, with journalist Toyohiro Akiyama, in whom a suborbital flight was accompanied by a space disease. This is due to vestibular failure, which causes weightlessness, but he released his own book - “The Pleasure of Space Flight”. The situation worsens when the traveler's health falls on the shoulders of other crew members.
They can be allowed to fly if health problems do not appear in a year more than 1-2% and in no way affect the planned program. Otherwise, special documentation will be compiled - a waver. It is prepared carefully: they collect all scientific publications on ailments, conduct tests, and attract scientists. As a result, doctors say whether they can fix the problem or take risks by evading the rules. The final decision is always made by the Council on Space Medicine, where there are all representatives of existing space organizations.
Of the 6 travelers, Mark Shuttleworth was the healthiest; the doctors showed him nothing. As for Gregory Olsen, he had problems with his heart and breathing. He was operated on, a year was spent on recovery, after that preparation was continued, and the flight to the ISS was successful.
Buying tickets
Tickets for the next flights have long been purchased, although periodic flights have not begun. Places reserved about 500 residents of 35 states. Many of them live in the USA. After comes the United Kingdom, there is also a candidate from the Russian Federation - Timur Artemyev (Euroset company). Interested in flying to and from show business. Rumor has it that Paris Hilton and John Travolta are preparing for the flight.