First "Real" Space Tourists Launched To Int. Space Station

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   GA Andersonposted 11 months ago

   "SpaceX will launch a former NASA astronaut and three paying customers on a journey to the International Space Station. That mission, called Ax-1, lifts off today (April 8)!
   
   Today's launch, which comes a couple of days later than expected after a delay of NASA's Artemis 1 "wet dress rehearsal," will kick off the first crewed mission organized by Texas-based company Axiom Space. Ax-1 will launch on a 10-day mission to the space station commanded by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría. The mission will also fly paying passengers Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe."
   SpaceX launching private Ax-1 astronaut mission today
   
   I doubt that any but fellow Baby Boomers will think this as friggin' awesome as I do. This isn't a 5-minute carnival bounce into the lowest limits of space—these folks will spend 8 days on the Int. Space station.
   
   I can imagine the `young folks' responses will range from that's great, to that's nice, to yeah, and . . . " But that's only because they don't know, yet, that Buck Rogers was written by a 23-century time traveler.
   
   And, as a side-note, this looks like another Ma Bell revolution. Compare what happened to telephonics after the break-up. It looks comparable to what has happened to space science, (or at least its application), since NASA gave up its monopoly.
   
   GA

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      Sharlee01posted 11 months agoin reply to this

      I think it is friggin' awesome.  I still remember the excitement when Armstrong and Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on the moon.

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      Credence2posted 11 months agoin reply to this

      This is exciting GA, as I simply love the concept of space travel. I guess we are on a good start, but I am still disappointed. In "2001, A Space Odyssey", one of the most stunning films of 1960s, I saw a orbiting space station that reminded me of the Marriott Hotel. We had a lunar based facility, with people routinely going to and from the moon.
      
      Geez, by 2022, I would have thought that even Disney would have established a lunar theme park with all the bells and whistles, just keep the kids away from the airlock!!
      
      While this event it is a start, we have a ways to go.

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         GA Andersonposted 11 months agoin reply to this

         I didn't think about the moon. I'm thinking the modules idea, as a first step, is a lot less complex than the mechanics of landing on the moon, and leaving again.
         
         Don't get too excited about that "it's a start" feeling. You should have seen why by the time you get here. ;-)
         
         GA

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            Ken Burgessposted 11 months agoin reply to this

            Musk is the key.
            
            The man has a well conceived plan.  Thought out over a decade ago.
            
            Solar Power... Boring Company... AI... Robots...vehicles... satellites....rockets
            
            Everything needed to set up a colonization of Mars he is creating on Earth...his companies...his control...he is the reason why we will reach Mars.
            
            If Musk doesn't accomplish this, it will be a hundred years at best before another genius is born with the will and ability and good fortune to get humanity there.

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               GA Andersonposted 11 months agoin reply to this

               Your Musk thought doesn't surprise me. It was my point that private industry reached this milestone, not a government effort. I am not demanding NASA's achievements—they were monumental, but private industry has taken things to the next step—real space tourism and development is friggin' awesome.
               
               Hmm . . . can a private citizen claim ownership of a planet???? The current argument says . . . maybe.
               
               GA

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                  Ken Burgessposted 11 months agoin reply to this

                  It was so close to not being a reality its hard to believe.
                  
                  If one more Space X rocket had failed, there would be no Space X.
                  
                  Hard to imagine today... considering they launch 50 rockets a year.

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   Ken Burgessposted 11 months ago

   Went off without a hitch and the booster landed perfectly.
   
   Typical Space X day.

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      GA Andersonposted 11 months agoin reply to this

      That "landed perfectly" part is amazing. Just imagine the "magic" of going from parachute ocean splashdowns and recoveries to gliding space shuttle runway landings, to being able to re-land the hulk of a used booster stage.
      
      GA

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   GA Andersonposted 11 months ago

   The next step is private commercial "Int. Space Stations". And from there private space modules tethered to a `base' station.
   
   This is now probable in the next few years, not the next few decades. Here is an angle to consider—Space real estate, who is going to arbitrate orbit encroachments or proximity dangers?
   
   And space real estate laws of course. And Space laws to regulate space real estate laws. And, of course, a Federal government hand to regulate and make the space laws.
   
   That's gonna be expensive, so there will also have to be space taxes. Meaning space tax laws/codes, and space tax lawyers and a space division in the IRS.
   
   Thank goodness we already have a Space Force.
   
   GA

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