Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is going to fly around the moon on Elon Musk's ship in 2023. He bought all the seats onboard and is now looking for eight volunteers from around the world to accompany him. In total, according to him, there will be from 10 to 12 people on board the spacecraft, including the astronauts themselves, and the route will run around the moon, without landing, with a return to Earth. The flight will take six days - it will take three days to reach the Moon, and it will take three days to return. Maezawa and his creative friends will thus become the first lunar travellers since the last American Apollo mission in 1972 - if SpaceX, of course, can make the trip.
Starship still worries me. Now the Single Launch Space Station idea atop Super-Heavy with a rump “Star Kicker” stage that could be refueled and discarded—that could thump quite the Earth Moon cycler out there that a human rated Falcon Heavy rated Dragon could catch up with and dock to. Seems more responsible to me. In the FOR ALL MANKIND thread I describe an old paper where a shuttle orbiter remains attached to a refueled ET in something like this tourist mission. But the External Tank was just that—a tank only. No legs...no heat-shield...no Adama Maneuver. There, the orbiter told its ET “hold my beer.” With Starship, the beer holds you.
July 11 for Branson's flight on VG. Two pilots and four passengers including Branson. July 20 for Blue Origin. The Bezos brothers, Wally Funk and unknown paying passenger.
Seen one mention of Wally Funk and fuckton on branson and bezos whom I frankly don't give a toss about. Funk should have gotten her flight 60 years ago.
Funk could be a good influence to Bezos…I see her and Shotwell working together someday. Starlink now https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2022/06/real-time-view-of-starlink-satellites.html Lasercomm http://parabolicarc.com/2022/06/26/locate-and-identify-satellites-with-laser-reflectors/ space book for kids https://www.amazon.com/What-If-Space/dp/1562949128 Asteroid day http://parabolicarc.com/2022/06/25/...ebrate-asteroid-day-live-on-thursday-june-30/
The rocket was cool, but it looks funny. Watched the launch and landing last night, and it was an awesome achievement. Nice to see that the booster section landed parfectly right where it was supposed to. You have to love technology.
Late night talkshow host had a field day with Bezos' .. uhm.. device I mean i'm no aerospace engineer and there are physical laws that basically determine the form of certain engines but come one - this one was just too on the nose and obvious. It's also funny to me how both claim to have gone to space when they barely left the atmosphere. I think Branson went to about 40km above ground when the ISS is in orbit around 400km.
from what i understand branson went to 50 miles (us / faa definition of space, bezos went to 62 miles international definition of space. musk need to go to iss curious which ride cost more ,if i had that kind of money i want to be sure of reaching space getting most recognized astronauts wings ,as stated above any one who flew with branson may not be recognized by some as astronauts.
The name astronaut is really a relic of cold-war propaganda from the 1950s and 60s. The ISS has to be boosted occasionally to counteract the effects of atmospheric drag at that altitude that would otherwise cause its orbit to decay. One might argue that going beyond the earth's magnetospheric bubble qualifies someone to be an astronaut or "star sailor". So that would be the crews of Apollos 8 and 10 through 17 -- 24 people rather than 27 as Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13), John Young (Apollo 10 and 16), and Eugene Cernan (Apollo 10 and 17) each went to the moon twice. As they went only as far as the moon, perhaps lunanauts would be more appropriate. The term cosmonaut is similarly hyperbolic political marketing. As to those venturing into low earth orbit within the thermosphere or exosphere, perhaps we could call them thermonauts or exonauts. I can't get excited about suborbital hops, which seem like glorified, expensive fairground rides for the super rich and their pals.
Orbit isn't a place, it's a condition. The Karman line definition works just fine, it's just probably a little high.
It took decades for three X-15 pilots who flew to altitudes of 50+ miles to be officially recognized as astronauts - two of them posthumously. I don't see why Richard Branson should get this honour though as he was just a passenger. If you're not guiding your craft, you aren't a sailor.