Commercial Space Travel Is a Giant Leap for the One Percent

If you can't afford the ride, stream the video.

Peter Garrison

Thursday, June 09, 2022 at 12:24 PM ET

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Blue Origin recently completed its 20th spaceflight for the New Shepard missions. [Courtesy: Blue Origin]

Key Takeaways:

The article clarifies that "the edge of space" is an arbitrary concept, with various definitions (e.g., Kármán Line at 100km, USAF at 50 miles), and that the term "astronaut" is being redefined to distinguish functional crew members from mere passengers.
It contrasts Blue Origin's classical vertical rocket launch/landing with Virgin Galactic's mothership-launched spaceplane, noting Virgin Galactic's technical struggles, limited suborbital capabilities, and unrealistic future ambitions.
The author critiques the burgeoning private space tourism as a "plutocratization of space," highlighting the exorbitant costs and exclusive nature of these experiences for the ultra-wealthy, rather than a genuine democratization.

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We heard a lot in August 2021 about the “edge of space” and the life-changing effects of going to it. But wait a minute—does space even have an edge?

Space is everywhere. It permeates everything, as water does a sponge. In fact, the volume each of us occupies in the world is mostly empty space. What Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and their clients went to the edge of was not space, but the Earth’s atmosphere. And of course, the atmosphere does not have a real edge either; it just gradually gets harder and harder to detect.