Man at all times wanted to fly to the stars.This desire is reflected in the legends and myths. All nations have similar legends. Icarus rose to the sun and collapsed when the sun melted the wax holding his wings. Alexander of Macedon flew on magic horses and returned safely to the ground. Even the prophet Muhammad flew on a magical creature. Literary heroes of Cyrano de Bergerac on a fireworks rocket, Baron Munchausen on a cannon ball, also flew into space. Space tourism is associated with the development of astronautics.
From Kaluga to Baikonur
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, modestteacher from Kaluga, became the founder of the theory of space flight, the representative of the philosophy of cosmism. In his works, he wrote that mankind will not remain on Earth, but will be settled on the planets and artificial objects of the Solar system, will carry the light of mind into the Universe. This path is long and difficult, but the sum of this suffering is invisible in the ocean of happiness of the whole cosmos.
Tsolkovsky wrote that:
Cosmos contains only joy
And "radiant humanity" worthy of this joy
In the Soviet Union, space exploration flourished.
In 1957in the Soviet Union, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched. And in 1961, the first man Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin flew into space from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Group flights were made, the first interplanetary stations were launched to the Moon, Venus and Mars. In 1965, Alexey Leonov made the first spacewalk. Every year there were new breakthroughs in the exploration of outer space. Samples of lunar soil were obtained, an orbital space station was created. The astronauts worked on it for a long time.
The international cooperation
Other countries have also been involved in space research. Launched American satellites and spacecraft.
In 1968, an international agreement was signed on the rescue of astronauts, the return of astronauts and objects launched into outer space.
In 1969, the American Apollo 10 spacecraft reached the moon and the astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin stayed on the moon in the Sea of Tranquility for about 21 hours!
Launched the Japanese, Chinese, European satellites.
In 1975the docking of the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft was carried out. This required a lot of preparatory work. It was necessary to unify the docking stations, to achieve a uniform composition of the atmosphere and much more.
International Space Station
The international space station was createdjointly by the Russian Space Agency and NASA. In 1998, the first Russian and American modules were sent, and in 2000, the first cosmonauts arrived at the station. Since then, 57 expeditions have been made to the station. The 58th expedition is scheduled for November.
What it is?
In 1967, at the space conference, the idea of space tourism was first voiced.
And in 1986, the first space tourist was to be Krista McColife. But she died in the explosion of the American "Challenger".
In 1990 and 1991, astronauts from Japan and the UK flew to the Soviet orbital station for privately financed projects.
Space tourism in Russia officially started in 2001. The first officially recognized space tourist Dennis Tito went to space from Baikonur.
128 revolutions around the earth cost Tito 20 million dollars.
Thus, Russia declared itself as a country of space tourism.
The first space tourist
Dennis Tito (born 1940) - Americanmultimillionaire, executive director of the largest investment company. All his life he was interested in space and space technology. He received an appropriate education and worked at NASA. Tito financed major government space programs.
In 2001He completed a full cosmonaut training course. The course included both physical training and engineering training, both for pilots of cosmonauts. Tito was trained in manual docking. All this was necessary in case of emergencies to control the ship in case of automation failure.
На орбите не привыкший к невесомости Дени слишком abruptly pushed off the floor and hitting the ceiling, smashed his head. The Russian cosmonaut Talgat Musabaev gave him first aid and looked after him afterwards. Tito called him a nanny.
Despite this incident, Dennis Tito considers his flight the main and best event in his life.
Space tourists from other countries
Since the flight of Tito in space have visited justseven people. These are Mark Shuttleworth (South Africa), Gregory Olsen (USA), Anoushe Ansari (American of Iranian origin), Charles Shimonyi (American of Hungarian origin) Shimonyi flew twice into space. Richard Garriott (USA) and Guy Laliberte (Canada) also visited the space.
In 2015, the English singer Sarah Brighton was supposed to fly into space. But she refused to fly.
Space tourism in which countries develop? Of course, in the USA.
Suborbital space flights
The cost of space flight is very high andtherefore, they are only available in units. Therefore, for the development of space tourism, to reduce its cost, suborbital flights were proposed. Orbital and suborbital flight are very different from each other. During suborbital flight, the rocket does not reach the first cosmic velocity and does not go into orbit around the Earth. It moves along a vertical path and is at its highest point when the engine is turned off. The ship freezes for a few minutes, and the passengers find themselves in a state of weightlessness within a few minutes. The ship rises to a height of about 80 km.
Space tourism companies
These flights are much cheaper than full flights.orbital. Since the time of Dennis Tito, the cost of orbital flight has risen from $ 20 million to almost 40 million. And a suborbital flight will cost about $ 150,000.
Suborbital flight program interestedbusinessmen. In 2004, Richard Banson founded the company Virgin Galactic. This company developed the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. This ship is reusable.
It will be delivered to the launch altitude of 20 km using the White Knight Two aircraft. And then independently reaches a height of 80 km.
Джефф Безос, основатель Amazon.com, в 2000 г.created the Blue Origin company. She was originally engaged in launching satellites. Next, the company began building the New Shepard spacecraft for space tourism. The first test flight took place in 2015. The New Shepard ship has huge portholes, which makes it possible to fully enjoy the fantastic views opening.
In 2014, the Russian company Cosmocourse was created for space tourism. It was created with the assistance of Roskosmos and the Skolkovo Foundation. The first launch is scheduled for 2021.
The company Ilona Mask SpaceX also works indirection of space tourism. SpaceX announced the launch of two space tourists to fly around the moon. For this, Falcon carrier and the Dragon ship will be used. These works are currently under trial.
The rapid development of the space tourism industry at first caused great enthusiasm. But there were a lot of technical problems. The timing of launches was constantly postponed.
The test ship SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojava Desert in 2014. One pilot was killed and another was seriously injured.
Flight safety for space tourismis one of the main problems. There is still a lot of work, both technical and legislative. It is necessary to develop a legal framework for this activity, to adopt laws guaranteeing the safety of space tourists.
But the desire of people to visit space is too strong. And let's hope that space tourism and the problems of its development will not be ignored by the space industry.
