¡°Who was the first man to step on the moon... Neil Amstrong, obviously. We all know that, but who was the second man... Don't waste your time. It's not important. Nobody ever remembers the man who came second.¡±
This is an iconic dialogue from Rajkumar Hirani¡¯s Bollywood blockbuster ¡®3 Idiots¡¯ -- an equally evocative movie that students in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities hold in high regard and also probably the only good thing that¡¯s come out of Chetan Bhagat. It¡¯s also quite surreal to note that at the heart of our story are three ultra rich ¡®idiots¡¯ who are all used to winning.
The trigger for this race of private commercial space travel rejuvenated when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos¡¯ rocket company Blue Origin announced that it will launch its first astronaut crew to space via its New Shepard spacecraft on July 20 -- the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Aboard this suborbital joyride would be Bezos himself along with his brother Mark, the 82-year-old trailblazing female pilot Wally Funk and an unidentified person who paid $28 million.
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Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson looks to beat Bezos to space. His space tourism company Virgin Galactic announced that it will attempt to launch its next test spaceflight -- Virgin¡¯s VSS Unity spaceplane -- on July 11, with Branson on board. The company expects to do two additional test flights before opening up commercial service in 2022. If successful, this would mark a key milestone in a race to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.
Elon Musk¡¯s SpaceX is planning to launch four passengers on an orbital flight in the fourth quarter this year, in what is touted as the first all-civilian spaceflight in history. The mission aboard SpaceX¡¯s Dragon spacecraft will feature a four-person crew commanded by tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman in a charity-focused mission.?
Elon Musk's private spaceflight company SpaceX, founded over two decades ago, launched its first manned flight last year and was the first non-government vessel to dock a crew at the International Space Station. A new four-astronaut team reached the ISS in late April, propelled into orbit by a rocket booster recycled from a previous spaceflight.
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And that forms a large part of Musk¡¯s dream to make humanity a multi-planet species, triggered by existential threats such as an asteroid collision big enough to wipe out humanity. The prototypes to get to Mars are being tested to ensure that the deep-space vessel Starship becomes a fully reusable transport system capable of carrying up to 100 people to the Red Planet.
Eventually, SpaceX wants to launch a 1,000 Starship fleet that would take a million people to Mars every time their planetary orbits sync, or every 26 months--an average of three Starship rocket launches a day.
Private citizens have flown to space before, and the first person to get to the stars was a wealthy businessman named Dennis Tito, who paid US $20 million in 2001 for a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. But only seven private citizens were able to follow him into this extreme adventure until the Russian space agency pulled curtains over the program in 2009.
ALSO READ:?SpaceX To Launch Four Civilians To Space This Year Aboard Dragon Spacecraft
Private space companies have breathed a new life into space tourism. And for those sci-fi enthusiasts looking to build a future for humanity in space, albeit quite early, this leisure tourism could demonstrate both the safety and reliability of space travel.
Last year, the Indian government allowed private players to use the facilities and infrastructure at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as a means to provide a ¡°level playing field for satellites, launches, and space-based services¡±. This may open up several opportunities that Indian businesses may be keen to explore, including space tourism.
The success of India¡¯s first manned space mission, Gaganyaan, which has been delayed by a year or two due to the COVID-19 pandemic, would cement ISRO¡¯s status as a major super space power -- and even encourage the Indian space agency to dive into the lucrative business of space tourism.?
And given the track record, ISRO can race to the top by offering cheaper tickets than the Bezos and Bransons and Musks. Let's hope that day comes sooner rather than later.