India-born aviator and commercial pilot Gopi Thotakura was among the six space tourists who undertook a short recreational trip to space on Sunday (May 19). Thotakura, who is based in the United States, is the first space tourist from India but more than 50 others have made such trips to date.

THE JOURNEY

  • From take off to landing, the whole journey lasted only about ten minutes, during which the spacecraft attained a maximum height of about 105 km from the Earth.
  • It was one of the shortest and quickest trips to space.
  • Space travel begins at about 100 km altitude from Earth, after crossing the so-called Karman line, which is generally considered to be the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
  • Anything flying below this altitude is called an aircraft while those crossing this line get classified as a spacecraft.
First Indian To Complete A Sub Orbital Trip explained for UPSC DID GOPI’S FLIGHT CROSS THE KARMAN LINE? Gopi’s journey was what is called a sub-orbital space flight. The spacecraft did not get into an orbit around the Earth. It crossed the Karman line, stayed there for some time, and then descended back to Earth, similar to how most space tourism flights operate. ARE LONGER JOURNEYS ALSO POSSIBLE? Longer joy rides in space are also available. Space tourists have orbited around the Earth, and even spent a few days on the International Space Station, the permanent space laboratory that goes around the Earth at an altitude of about 400 km. In fact, the first space tourist was Dennis Tito, an American who paid to travel on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2001. There are plans afoot for having much deeper space trips for interested individuals, potentially to destinations around the Moon, other planets or asteroids. But these are still some time away in the future. For the time being, sub-orbital space flights are the most favoured journeys for space tourism enthusiasts.

WHAT ARE THE COSTS INVOLVED?

Blue Origin has not disclosed the price that its latest set of passengers paid for a seat on this journey. But according to Space.com, a similar journey on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, costs about $450,000 (about Rs. 3.75 crore). A journey to the International Space Station is now estimated to cost anything between 20 to 25 million dollars (about Rs. 160 to 210 crore). A recent NASA paper mentions that space companies SpaceX and Space Adventures were planning to offer a journey around the Moon for about 70 to 100 million dollars (about Rs. 600 to 850 crore).