After years of waiting, 2021 was the year that space tourism finally took off. At least seven commercial spaceflight missions were launched last year putting billionaires and civilians into space. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin launched their founders Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, respectively, along with other tourists in July. Branson and crew flew just above the boundary of space, where everyone experienced about four minutes of weightlessness, while Bezos and co. soared past the Karman line at an altitude of about 100 km above Earth.
SpaceX launched Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian mission, in September. They stayed in Earth orbit for three days. In October, a Russian film crew landed at the International Space Station (ISS) to shoot the first full-length movie in space. In December, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, launched aboard a Russian-built Soyuz capsule to the ISS. Besides these, Blue Origin operated two more missions, taking tourists on space adventures.
For their second consumer flight, Blue Origin grabbed headlines by inviting none other than Captain Kirk himself to join the flight as a guest. The inimitable William Shatner became the oldest person to visit space at 90, and claimed it was one of the highlights of his life: “I was so besotted by what happened on that flight. It moved me to tears, so much so that … I couldn’t control my emotions for 15 to 20 minutes,” Shatner told TIME in an interview after his flight.
For over a decade, the only visitors to the International Space Station have been astronauts focused on research and other scientific projects – and one Russian actress/director who visited earlier in 2021 to film scenes for an upcoming movie. In some ways, it seemed that the days of welcoming tourists on ISS were over; Canadian businessman Guy Laliberté was the last to visit in 2009.
That changed in December, when Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa arrived with a videographer to spend 12 days aboard the station. While up there, he answered common questions about life in microgravity (including the classic toilet concerns) and also did some fun experiments to encourage interest in space.
Maezawa is slated to take a flight around the moon with SpaceX at some point in the future; the trip has been proposed for 2023 but not confirmed.
To round out the year, Blue Origin made a third successful flight in early December. In addition to several paying customers, passengers included Good Morning America host Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space and who Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is named for.
In addition to being a TV host, Strahan has a background in professional football, and tweeted “TOUCHDOWN has a new meaning now!!!” upon his successful return to earth.
Credit : Forbes
Picture Credit : Google
