The photo of the “Blue Marble” is world famous. The crew of the “Apollo 17” recorded it in 1972 from an altitude of around 29,000 kilometers. It shows the earth as a “blue marble” in a black space. Environmental movements around the world pasted the photo on their posters, placards and flags. Because it reveals at a glance the vulnerability and uniqueness of our planet.
The four space tourists of the US company SpaceX will not fly nearly as high as the crew of the Apollo 17. On Wednesday they flew into an earth orbit of almost 600 kilometers. But the four will someday symbolize a new era in a similar way. Unlike the minute-long flights of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin a few weeks ago, SpaceX tourists have plenty of time to see the wonder of Earth. A new chapter in space history is opened. Because SpaceX sends the quartet upstairs without any space experience, the capsule is remotely controlled from Earth.
If the landing succeeds on the weekend, SpaceX has demonstrated how simple and accessible space can be. A new market is emerging: the investment bank Morgan Stanley expects the “space economy” to reach a total volume of 1.1 trillion dollars by 2040. Sales drivers are satellites, rocket launches – and space tourism as well.
For SpaceX, space tourism is just one piece of the puzzle in the big plan to bring space missions to Mars. However, the tourism business is important for the company in order to be able to show sales and convince investors. SpaceX is already valued at $ 74 billion.
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In contrast to Virgin Galactic with Richard Branson or Blue Origin with Jeff Bezos, the boss does not fly with SpaceX. This is an important message, founder Elon Musk has not given in to the thrill of adventure: The flight is not about satisfying his space dreams. You have to take off your hat before that.
One can argue that space tourism remains a playground for the really rich in this world. Instead of Musk, billionaire Jared Isaacman is flying with us. That’s right – still. Space tourism is also likely to develop in the same way as many other markets, such as air travel, the price of which has fallen from unaffordable to Ryanair level.
Prices will fall significantly in the future
Admittedly, that will take a while for space flights. Isaacman has put an estimated $ 50 million on the table for himself and his three fellow travelers. The hop to suborbital heights with Virgin Galactic costs around $ 200,000 to $ 450,000. But prices will drop significantly over the coming years and decades.
So far, more than 550 people have been in space. It will quickly become much more. But the democratization of the universe not only opens up a new market. The space experience will change people. Up there they can see how thin the layer of our atmosphere is, which protects the earth from the hostile black of space. Many astronauts report the unforgettable impression of experiencing how fragile the earth is. “We astronauts see how the eel lake is getting smaller and smaller, the rainforests in the Amazon and in Indonesia are burning,” said the German astronaut Ernst Messerschmid, for example.
The world needs this perspective from above. Space tourism can not only be a profitable business, it is also a great way to show the fragility of the earth.
The universe becomes part of our everyday life. Numerous satellites are sending ever better and more accurate images of the earth, documenting environmental degradation and water pollution. Some experts even claim that a war like the one the USA started against Iraq in 2003 would no longer be waged today – because powerful satellites with high-performance optics are also available to universities or institutes who would quickly find out: Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction .
Anyone who complains now and refers to the CO2 emissions from rockets or satellite waste in space is not only failing to recognize the economic opportunities of “New Space”, but also the ideal. Astronauts are better people: the more of them we have, the better.
More: SpaceX shoots four space tourists alone into space. It’s a daring experiment.
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