76 • JULY 2019
SPACE TOURISM:
Tamara Hinson examines why space exploration
developments shouldn’t just be of interest to budding
astronauts—they’re helping to overhaul our holidays, tooI
n early May 2019 Blue Origin,
the space exploration company
founded by Amazon CEO Jeff
Bezos, successfully launched—and
landed—the rocket Bezos plans to
use for space tourism. Virgin Galactic
founder Richard Branson has said
he hopes to start commercial space
flights by the end of 2019. In recent
years, international space agencies
and private space exploration
companies have made huge leaps
forward in their efforts to explore
beyond planet Earth. Another first
was achieved in early 2019, when
China's Yutu 2 rover became the first
to explore the moon's far side.
This isn't just good news for those
of us with a burning desire to visit
the Moon, see our planet from space
or set up camp on Mars—if you're a
keen traveller, it's highly likely you'll
eventually benefit from developments
relating to space exploration. Elon
Musk, founder of SpaceX, recently
pointed out that, by travelling in a
spaceship sent into orbit, an eight-
hour flight in a cramped aeroplane
could become a 30-minute hop,
while the entire planet could be
circumnavigated in just 90 minutes.
"It currently takes me 20 hours
to get from Houston to Singapore,"
says Randy “Komrade” Bresnik, a
NASA astronaut who recently served
as Commander of the InternationalONE SMALL STEP
FOR PRIVATE
COMPANIES