Many people dream of going into space, but until recently only professional astronauts had that privilege. That all changed in 2022, with successful first missions for several space tourism companies.
First off the runway, in early July, was Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company. Its spaceship, called VSS Unity, took four passengers and two pilots on a trip to the edge of space, where they experienced weightlessness and saw the Earth from above.
Unity has a fully reusable design--it is carried to a height of 9.5 miles under a larger "mothership" plane called Eve. It is then released before firing its own rockets to reach its maximum height of 53 miles. As it begins to fall, its wings turn around so that it floats down slowly like a shuttlecock (羽毛球), before levelling out and flying back to land like a normal aeroplane. Virgin Galactic hopes to begin regular flights in 2023.
Less than two weeks later, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's New Shepard rocket made its first flight, launching a space capsule with four passengers to an altitude of 66 miles. Among those on board were Bezos himself and 82-year-old Wally Funk, a pioneering female pilot who trained for NASA's Mercury programme in the early 1960s but had waited 60 years for her chance to go into space. Funk became the oldest person to fly in space but only held that record until October, when 90-year-old actor William Shatner flew on the second New Shepard launch. Shatner played Captain Kirk in the Star Trek TV series and films.
In September, the Inspiration 4 mission carried four ordinary people into orbit around Earth. The launch was the first private passenger flight for Elon Musk's SpaceX company, using a Dragon spacecraft that is also used for NASA missions. Designed to raise awareness and funds for St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, US, the mission was paid for by billionaire Jared Isaacman. He was joined on the three-day flight by medical researcher Hayley Arceneaux, competition winner Dr Sian Proctor and hospital supporter ChrisSembroski.
