Space Firms SERA And Blue Origin Partner Up To Develop A Unique Human Spaceflight Program For Citizens

With this space programme, citizens from around the world can become astronauts and participate in space science. For the first flight, all six seats on Blue Origin's New Shepard are reserved.

US-based space firms Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA) and Blue Origin have partnered up to develop a unique human spaceflight programme that will enable citizens of those nations to fly to space which have historically lacked access to space. With this space programme, every day citizens from around the world can become astronauts and participate in space science. For the first flight, all six seats on Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft have been reserved. 

Since the aim of the programme is to make space more accessible, five of the seats will be given to five partner nations who never had an astronaut, or had very few astronauts. The partner nations are yet to be announced. Meanwhile, a person from any nation can ride on the sixth seat. 

More about the space programme and SERA’s mission

SERA is developing the science experiment payloads onboard the flight in collaboration with national space agencies and regional research institutes. 

The space community will select the final astronauts and determine science experiments. 

In a statement released by SERA, Joshua Skurla, the organisation's co-founder, said around 150 countries have never had an astronaut, and they created the programme to change this and make space more accessible to everyone. 

Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President, New Shepard Business Unit, Blue Origin, said people's future life in space must reflect the rich diversity here on Earth, and the programme will allow humans who have never had an opportunity to go to space to experience its wonders. 

More than 80 per cent of all astronauts to date have flown to space from just three countries: US, Russia, and China. Also, these countries own and operate around 80 per cent of in-space infrastructure. SERA was founded to address the historical imbalance. 

Sam Hutchison, a co-founder of SERA, said that despite trillions spent by governments, there have usually been only a handful of people in space at any given time over the last three decades. 

He also said that since the unimaginably rich material and energy resources of the solar system remain entirely untapped, and launch costs are coming down, SERA wants to ensure that everyone on Earth gets the chance to participate in the growth of the space economy.