Captain Kirk heading to space.. for real!

[Magnumskywolf]

Sky news is pretty behind other links

 

[ThankQ]

That seemed like a hard landing

 

[Magnumskywolf]

That seemed like a hard landing

It did hope they're ok

 

[Paul Weaver]

As if years (or decades) of training, experience, and an actual job to do is the equivalent of spending cash for a ride as a passenger.

Potential for calling Audrey Powers an astronaut given her work, but I'm not sure how much space related training she'd have done (I don't follow Blue Origin much as they aren't a real space company like SpaceX)

 

[ThankQ]

They're moving.

 

[thribs]

All that for 2 minutes.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

He did it.

 

[KennyB]

I rode in a 747, I'm a qualified pilot.

I worked in a hospital, I'm a doctor.

So many people are going "Don't be pedantic" in other threads.

As if years (or decades) of training, experience, and an actual job to do is the equivalent of spending cash for a ride as a passenger.

Blood, sweat, and tears vs. buying your seat.

They crossed the Kármán line......rules are rules......I don't care how you got there. It qualifies.

 

[wayoung]

They crossed the Kármán line......rules are rules......I don't care how you got there. It qualifies.

They changed the rules specifically because of space tourists on the day Bezos launched to differentiate between tourists and astronauts. If "rules are rules" then they *still* aren't astronauts according to the official FAA designation.

 

[Vampire Kirk]

Success!

 

[Paul Weaver]

Oh god, they just said about Shatner's Singing

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[thribs]

I wonder if Shatner bored his fellow astronauts about his horses.

 

[Paul Weaver]

They crossed the Kármán line......rules are rules......I don't care how you got there. It qualifies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57950149

To qualify as commercial astronauts, space-goers must travel 50 miles (80km) above the Earth's surface, which both Mr Bezos and Mr Branson accomplished.

But altitude aside, the agency says would-be astronauts must have also "demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety".

Audrey Powers may qualify under "or contributed to human space flight safety" depending on the exact wording (if that contribution has to be above the 80km line or not), I can't see the other three meeting that criteria.

 

[KennyB]

They changed the rules specifically because of space tourists on the day Bezos launched to differentiate between tourists and astronauts. If "rules are rules" then they *still* aren't astronauts according to the official FAA designation.

The Kármán Line was established in the 1960s by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (also known as the FAI) in honor of physicist Theodore von Kármán........where did you hear they changed it for tourism?

NASA is the only body that places it HIGHER:
Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Air Force, NOAA, and NASA generally use 50 miles (80 kilometers) as the boundary, with the Air Force granting astronaut wings to flyers who go higher than this mark. At the same time, NASA Mission Control places the line at 76 miles (122 kilometers)

 

[wayoung]

I'm honestly not sure if Shatner is acting here or not. He's such a performer, everything public he does is so prepped and prepared and scripted but when he was going on about death - seems like real lines & emotions slipping in with the prepared lines

 

[KennyB]

Hey--I'm happy for them. Nobody is trying to hold them up to John Glenn or Alan Shepard.....

 

[ThankQ]

The commentary on the livestream is so terrible. It's like if a movie was doing a parody of a private companies space launch, but it's real. It's so over the top "All hail Bezos & Blue Origin & Amazon" that Paul Verhoeven would find it a little much.

Also, stop calling them astronauts, commentators. They're not astronauts. They're space tourists. The FAA actually went out of its way to specify that they're not astronauts when Bezos' went on his first trip - an Astronaut has to be a member of the crew and actually *do something* on the mission. Not just pay/be given a free trip as a(n admittedly great) PR stunt.

I rode in a 747, I'm a qualified pilot.

I worked in a hospital, I'm a doctor.

So many people are going "Don't be pedantic" in other threads.

As if years (or decades) of training, experience, and an actual job to do is the equivalent of spending cash for a ride as a passenger.

Blood, sweat, and tears vs. buying your seat.

Whew, he didn't blow up.

I'm honestly not sure if Shatner is acting here or not. He's such a performer, everything public he does is so prepped and prepared and scripted but when he was going on about death - seems like real lines & emotions slipping in with the prepared lines

You need a kitten.

 

[Vampire Kirk]

Okay, Bill, you've convinced me; I'm saving up for a Blue Origin seat.

 

[wayoung]

The Kármán Line was established in the 1960s by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (also known as the FAI) in honor of physicist Theodore von Kármán........where did you hear they changed it for tourism?

NASA is the only body that places it HIGHER:
Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Air Force, NOAA, and NASA generally use 50 miles (80 kilometers) as the boundary, with the Air Force granting astronaut wings to flyers who go higher than this mark. At the same time, NASA Mission Control places the line at 76 miles (122 kilometers)

They literally changed it to exclude tourists the day Bezos went to space because of the influx of tourists. It was all over the news. The person must actually contribute, not just be a passenger, to be an astronaut. There has to be a point to their being on the ship, not just having spent money for a seat. No different than buying a ticket on a plane vs being a member of the crew.

 

[cooleddie74]

And it's now happened. Captain Kirk has been in space.

That's not even on my bucket list and yet in many ways always was.