Space: Uncharted Vastness

Popularised by the Star Trek series, the phrase “Space: the final frontier” refers to the human mission to explore uncharted territories in space. Humankind has always gazed upwards to the sky. While human ancestors speculated superstitiously about the constellation in the sky at night and the sun at daytime, now humankind has broader information about the universe thanks to science. However, even with the explanation of science, there is a childlike wonder in every human when gazing up at the sky. 

When the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was launched in 1957, it heralded a new beginning in space exploration. It was swiftly followed by Yuri Gagarin’s historic orbit and the United States’ lunar landing led by Neil Armstrong. Armstrong famously said about the lunar landing, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” While such pioneering space missions were driven by national pride among nations such as the US and Russia, now they are a matter of competition among companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, decades after the establishment of space stations, Mir and International Space Station (ISS). 

Today, SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, has a mission to ‘occupy Mars’ while Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos and Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson, aim to leverage space travel as a form of tourism. All three mentioned here are billionaires and there has been much buzz about space tourism, as in the recent suborbital spaceflight of an all-female crew of six, including pop superstar Katy Perry aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The other crew members were CBS Morning host Gayle King, Lauren Sanchez (Jeff Bezos’ fiancée and media personality), former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn and bioastronautics researcher Amanda Nguyen. 

All of them are highly successful females in their respective fields, so unsurprisingly, media attention was quite high for this 11-minute journey. While many expressed their delight, others criticised the extravagant display of wealth. And it is indeed an expensive flight with a price tag of hundreds of thousands of US dollars. Despite the criticism, it is still a historic feat that combined female empowerment with space tourism.

As science and technology progress, so does knowledge about space and its mysteries. SpaceX has been in the spotlight through its leading work in aerospace as it works tirelessly with Musk’s hefty ambition to put humans on Mars, far-fetched but quite aspirational. Astronauts in space and even those on board rockets such as New Shepard get to view the pale blue planet that is the Earth from the vastness of space. Astronauts have admitted to feeling a profound sense of awe as they float around in the spaceship and view their beloved home from space stations. 

While previously space journey was mostly limited to astronauts who had to undergo rigorous training beforehand, now space tourism could be open to the rest of the world. Of course, a substantial amount of money would have to be invested but it is exciting what the future could bring. Perhaps one day, space travel would be easy, affordable and accessible to all? The space presents to us the vastness of the universe, which now seems more reachable and open to exploration as a possible tourism destination.