Space tourism's image problem

摘要

For the very patient advocates of space tourism, the good news is that 2019 may finally be the year that tourists get to fly on suborbital vehicles. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flew to space - or, at least, its definition of space, 80 kilometers - for the first time last month. The company's founder, Richard Branson, said after the flight he expected to be on the first commercial flight of SpaceShipTwo some time in 2019. Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital vehicle has already made several suborbital flights to altitudes above 100 kilometers, although so far without people on board. That will change this year, said Ariane Cornell, head of astronaut strategy and sales at Blue Origin, during a panel session on commercial space at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington Jan. 16.