WHEN WILL WE BE ABLE TO TAKE A VACATION IN SPACE?

A few weeks have passed since Perseverance's landing on Martian soil , and the first shots of the red planet are already rekindling the desire for space travel, just in time for a new, exciting space race. Yes, because the commercial space race is starting to come alive , with problems in launch tests, and various unforeseen events, which daily overturn the cards on the table and leave an aura of uncertainty about which could be the first company capable of launching the first ones. civilians in space.

There are three main suspects to cross the finish lineand win what could be a fundamental advantage over others, from a technological point of view, but also and above all, from a media point of view. Let's see together what they are and what projects they carry out.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is like an American space company of the Virgin group. It was founded in 2004 by the histrionic Richard Benson and the main proposal of the company is that of a space flight aboard a "space plane", SpaceShipTwo, lasting about two hours. It is not easy to define from what point onwards we talk about space flight: the FAI (Federation Aeronatique International) establishes that space begins above the Kármán line, an imaginary line 100 km above sea level , while NASA and other American entities generally use 80km as a border.

However, Virgin Galactic's flight would exceed both of these values, in fact the spaceplane consists of a rocket attached to a mother plane, White-Knight Two, which detaches at 15 km and continues its ascent, reaching a maximum altitude of 110 km. and thus guaranteeing passengers a journey into space , even if obviously the aircraft would remain above the Kármán line for only a few minutes. Seats inside SpaceShipTwo would accommodate 6 passengers and two pilots, with an entrance ticket worth more than $ 250,000 per person.

To date, however, Virgin Galactic's first flight does not seem around the corner. On Thursday 26 February, the company announced that the next SpaceShipTwo flight test must be postponed at least until May , to deal with some technical problems that had emerged in the last attempt in December. On that occasion, the ignition of the engine was not completed , perhaps due to electromagnetic interference, forcing the aircraft to return safely to the ground.

However, the Virgin Galactic project does not stop there, but rather pursues another ambitious goal: to organize trips to the international space station. NASA has in fact signed an agreement with Richard Benson's company, which will be responsible for identifying candidates (private citizens but also researchers) interested in purchasing private missions for the space station, and organizing the trip.

Blue Origin

Blue Origin is the space company led by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and this already makes it one of the space companies to watch. The American tycoon also stated that he considers Blue Origin his most important work , generating even more hype around the project.

The company is among the competitors appointed by NASA, together with Space X and Dynetics, to produce the lunar lander that will be used as part of the Artemis 3 program. The engine of the rocket that will take the lander into orbit completed the fourth test in December. , and Bezos has already delivered a prototype to NASA, gaining a major lead in April's "elimination," which will select only two of the three companies to continue the race.

However, Blue Origin is also involved in the development of commercial space flights, which in Bezos' plans will take place aboard New Shepard, a suborbital rocket dedicated to Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space.

The rocket has a more classic setting than Benson's spaceplane and is formed by a dome-shaped capsule on an 18-meter-long body, promising to reach 110 km in height with six passengers on board

The rocket has successfully completed several tests, such as the one on January 14 that carried "Mannequin Skywalker", but has not yet completed any manned flights on board, planning to do so by early April. It is not yet knowns how much it will cost to fly aboard Blue Origin, but we can imagine that the price will not differ much from that of Virgin Galactic.

Despite having passed many tests without too many hitches, the first manned launch will be essential to have a more precise idea of what the timing is to conclude the testing phase, and therefore to forcefully enter the market. Certainly, the solidity and reliability of the owner are an important asset for the company, especially now that Bezos has renounced the role of CEO of Amazon, citing the desire to devote himself more to the space company as a reason.

Space X

We could only close with the company led by Elon Musk, the unpredictable CEO of Tesla. Space X has never set itself as a company purely devoted to space tourism, unlike those we have already seen, but it has taken on a dominant role lately, also thanks to the clever advertising move in the last Super Bowl . One commercial announced a mission called Inspiration4 , which will bring billionaire Jared Isaacman, a pilot, the CEO of Shift4Payments and three other people, into orbit, with the Crew Dragon vehicle, for a period of between two and four days.

The differences with the projects we have talked about so far are two: Inspiration4 should take place before the end of 2021, and also Crew Dragonhas already brought astronauts to space, to the international space station, with the historic mission of 2020 . Here, therefore, that Inspiration4 acquires a considerable weight in the field of space tourism.

However, remembers that we are talking about a project that is to space tourism as a one-month stay in the most expensive suite of the Burj Al-Arab is to ordinary tourism . The price of a seat on board Inspiration4, in fact, is around 55 million dollars, a figure 2000 times higher than the estimated price for a suborbital flight.

Obviously SpaceX does not want to build a business on this model of space travel, since it would be accessible to a very small slice of the population and the costs to be incurred are still important. Being the first to bring tourists into space, however, will bring a gigantic image return , and therefore a consolidation of the SpaceX figure in the space market, which could also be reflected in the relationship with NASA, for example for projects such as those of lunar lander.

To date, the closest compromise to space tourism "for all" is that of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, but their projects have yet to be refined and pass the testing phase. Perhaps, in a year we will be able to give a precise date , and maybe dream of the first tourists aboard SpaceShipTwo or New Shepard by the end of 2022. Furthermore, technological development is advancing quickly and with the first successes the sponsors will multiply, perhaps favoring a lowering of prices, to make a tourist trip in space a more concrete dream in the years to come.