Space Tourism, Space X, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic

SPACE TOURSIM

Space tourism involves the travel of individuals to outer space for recreational, leisure, or adventure purposes. Unlike traditional space exploration, which is primarily driven by scientific research and national initiatives, space tourism aims to provide private citizens with the opportunity to experience space travel. This emerging industry has gained momentum in the early 21st century, fueled by advancements in space technology and the ambition of private companies. Space tourism occurs in many countries. Because many companies are involved in both technology development and trips like The United States, Russia, and India. Among them have companies that are leaders in this field.

Traceback, space exploration was dominated by government-led programs, such as NASA’s Apollo missions. However, as technology progressed and costs associated with space travel reduced, private entities started to explore the possibility of opening space to civilians. The concept of space tourism gained traction with entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic leading the way. Space tourism experiences usually involve suborbital flights, allowing passengers to briefly enter space and experience weightlessness before returning to Earth. Companies design spacecraft capable of carrying paying customers, often accompanied by trained crew members. The vehicles are designed to withstand the strong conditions of space and provide a safe yet exhilarating experience for passengers.

One of the leaders in space tourism is Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson. Their spacecraft, VSS Unity, is a suborbital spaceplane designed to carry tourists on a brief journey to the edge of space. Another key player is Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, which developed the New Shepard spacecraft for suborbital flights.

Space tourism has its roots in the collective human fascination with space and the desire to make the marvelous experience of space travel accessible to a broader audience. As the industry, it poses both challenges and opportunities, including addressing safety concerns, environmental impacts, and the democratization of space access. Even though these considerations, space tourism represents a significant method in the commercialization of space and the potential for ordinary individuals to become space travelers.

These trips are intended to offer a unique and inspiring experience without the extensive training required for traditional astronauts.

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SPACE “X”

SpaceX is headquartered in Hawthorne. United States state of California It was founded in 2002 with the personal funding of Canadian billionaire Elon Musk. Born in South Africa but currently holding 3 nationalities are South African, Canadian and American, he is the founder of the company Space Exploration Technologies Corporation or “Space X”. With a dream that one day his company will take humans to settle abroad out of the earth. And Musk also wants to aim to build this company to help people to reduce the cost of sending rockets that contain things for future colonization. Moreover, SpaceX Company It designs, manufactures, and launches rockets and spacecraft. It has revolutionized the space technology industry. By developing two models of transport rockets, the Falcon-1 and the Falcon-9, the structure is designed to be reusable (Reusable Rocket) by being the first rocket that can come back to the earth by the rocket land successfully entered the ocean.

They are also developing the Dragon spacecraft for use with Falcon-9 rockets. to deliver stuff to support missions aboard the ISS which is capable of transporting humans that is currently in development.

Later, SpaceX was partially funded by NASA. Until accelerating the development of the Falcon-9 rocket that was first launched in 2010, and since then, the Falcon-9 has carried out the stuff delivery missions. Including satellites and supplies to the ISS more than 80 times, but between them there were two mission failures, in 2015 and 2016.

SpaceX is now a regular NASA partner on launch missions. And so far it’s been involved in about two-thirds of NASA’s rocket launch programs. With concession contracts worth billions of dollars.

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BLUE ORIGIN

Blue Origin is a private company that held the space travel. including producing its own rockets This company was founded by Jeff Bezos, the executive chairman of Amazon, who is also one of the world’s top billionaires. Most recently, he announced the opening of a service to send things to the moon by the middle of 2020. Blue Origin plans to develop a spacecraft that can land on the moon, that why it’s named Blue Moon, with the goal of sending experimental equipment, supplies, and things. Necessary for living It will be ready for future human habitation by the mid 2020s. The rocket can carry 10,000 pounds, or 4.5 tons, of load per trip. And The goal is also to make the cost of space travel cheaper than it is now. By reusing the equipment that launches spacecraft. This makes it possible to travel to space more frequently.

Moreover, they also test the new rocket by 14th experiment is a new long space experiment with an upgraded internal environment system. Both soundproofing systems, temperature control system inside the vehicle, crew control panel and microphone system for speaking at each seat. It is just successfully tested and gets the name “the New Shepard spacecraft” for the 14th time, which is the name of another rocket from Blue origin. This rocket has a special ability. Can be reused It is also the first rocket in the world to have this capability. Tested in November 2015 from 100 kilometers above sea level, it is the first privately owned rocket in history to perform a vertical landing from a height entering space.

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Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic, a spaceflight company Founded in 2004 by Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of businesses such as Virgin Airlines and Virgin Active fitness center, the company aims to provide spaceflight for tourists. Virgin Galactic is one of the privately held companies. One of the first to seriously engage in the business of space tourism. Because the cost of traveling per trip tends to decrease gradually as technology develops. which took more than 17 years to develop technology The test flight consists of two spacecraft components first one is VMS Eve, which functions like a mother ship, and second one is VSS Unity, a daughter spacecraft carrying a crew of six. Initially, VMS Eve will take off from the airport. Spaceport located in America, New Mexico, United States Until reaching an altitude of approximately 14 kilometers, VSS Unity separated. The rocket engine is operating at full power. Accelerate the craft to a speed of up to 3,700 kilometers per hour. and climbed into space at an altitude of 86 kilometers and then successfully glided back down to earth.

By 2019, the company was listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange. And a few days the company was able to successfully launch humans into outer space for the first time. Today, Virgin Galactic is valued at more than $7 billion. As for the share price itself, it has increased more than 3 times since the day it entered the stock exchange. Currently, more than 600 seats have been reserved. One ticket cost 250,000 US dollars or approximately 8,155,000 baht. In the past, Virgin Galactic has invested a lot in research and development to enable people to travel to space. at the lowest cost and taking a company public on the stock exchange is one of the ways to raise funds to continue business development.

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ABOUT

This article is a part of the class 

“751309 Macro Economic 2”

supervised by Asst. Prof. Napon Hongsakulvasu

Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University

 

This article was written by 

Jeerapha Jeeraya 651615008