First Indian Space Tourist Completes Sub-Orbital Flight

May 21, 2024

Gopi Thotakura, a commercial pilot from India, made history by becoming the first person from India to go on a recreational space trip. This happened on May 19 on a Blue Origin-owned spaceship. Participants in the flight, which lasted only ten minutes from start to finish, reached an altitude of about 105 km above Earth, crossing the Karman line, which is the line between Earth’s atmosphere and space.

What is Sub-Orbital Space Flights?

Suborbital space trips, like the one Thotakura took, don’t go around the Earth in an orbit. Instead, they cross the Karman line for a short time and then go back. People who go on these trips usually get to feel weightless for a few minutes and see Earth from space in a very different way. Over 50 people have already been on suborbital trips, which were made possible by private aerospace companies like Blue Origin and took less than a day.

Possibilities of Extended Space Tourism

Private space research includes more than just short trips below orbit. It also includes flights into orbit. For example, American Dennis Tito was the first person known to have been a space tourist. He spent more than a week on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2001 after travelling there on a Russian Soyuz rocket. Longer trips into space let tourists go around the Earth more than once and feel microgravity for a long time.

Economic Aspects of Space Tourism

The cost of space tourism changes a lot depending on the type of trip and how long it is. A short trip into suborbital space can cost around $450,000, while a trip to the International Space Station (ISS) could cost $20 to $25 million. More risky projects, like trips around the moon, are expected to cost between 70 and 100 million dollars. At the moment, only the wealthiest people can afford these kinds of events, but the sector is expected to grow in terms of both money and people. The area of space tourism is new, but it has a lot of potential to grow as technology improves and costs go down. This will let more people experience the wonders of space travel.

More About sub-orbital space flights

It is possible for suborbital spacecraft to reach space without going around Earth. They usually break through the Kármán line at 100 kilometres above Earth but not fast enough to go into orbit. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first person to fly below the orbit of the Earth. Commercial companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic want to make sub-orbital trips more accessible to everyone who wants to visit space. Suborbital flights only experience microgravity for a few minutes, while orbital flights experience it for a long time. Sub-orbital vehicles are easier to make and use less fuel and speed than orbital vehicles. They usually hit speeds of about 1 km/s, which is much slower than the 7.8 km/s orbital speed. In 2004, SpaceShipOne was the first privately funded craft to go into suborbital flight. It was paid for by Paul Allen. New developments suggest that suborbital trips could be used for fast long-distance travel on Earth, which could completely change the way people get around the world.

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