New Delhi: The year 2021 has been a substantial year for space tourism. Several non-astronauts made it to space, with billionaires putting their money in the new business avenue.
There were as many as 13 human spaceflight missions this year. Of these, seven were commercial spaceflight missions, and one was a commercial agreement between a space agency and media entities. From the first feature film shot in space to the oldest man going to space, several milestones were achieved this year. Following is the list of commercial spaceflight missions of 2021:
May 2021: Virgin Galactic Unity 21
On May 22, 2021, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, an American spaceflight company, successfully launched its first spaceflight, and took a step forward to space tourism. The mission, called Virgin Galactic Unity 21, was a suborbital flight and was piloted by David Mackay and co-piloted by Frederick Sturckow. The mission was Mackay’s second spaceflight, and Sturckow’s sixth spaceflight.
The crew was carried aboard the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity spacecraft, atop the Virgin Galactic carrier mothership VMS Eve. The VSS Unity spacecraft is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, which is owned by Virgin Galactic. This was the first human spaceflight to be launched from Spaceport America, a spaceport licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration, and also the first from the state of New Mexico.
The crew reached an altitude of 89.24 kilometres, satisfying the United States definition of spaceflight, but did not soar past the Karman line, the internationally recognised boundary of space.
July 2021: Virgin Galactic Unity 22
Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission, which launched on July 11, 2021, was the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity, and Virgin Galactic’s fourth crewed spaceflight. The suborbital spaceflight mission was also the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the spacecraft, to evaluate astronaut experience. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, was one of the mission specialists who tested the private astronaut experience, Virgin Galactic said on its website. David Mackay and Michael Masucci were the mission pilots, while passengers Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett, Beth Moses, and Branson were the mission specialists. Moses served as cabin lead and test director in space, Bennett evaluated cabin equipment and procedures, and Bandla evaluated the human-tended research experience. CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer flew the VMS Eve.
The mission focused on evaluating the commercial customer cabin with a full crew, including the cabin environment, and seat comfort, demonstrating the conditions for conducting human-tended research experiments, and confirming that the training program at Spaceport America supports the spaceflight experience.
The crew reached an apogee of over 86 kilometres, and just like the previous Unity mission, the suborbital flight did not cross the Karman line.
July 2021: Blue Origin NS-16
On July 20, 2021, Blue Origin successfully completed New Shepard’s first human flight with four private citizens onboard. The crew included Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daeman. The four persons officially became astronauts when they passed the Karman line.
NS-16 was the sixteenth flight of the New Shepard launch vehicle and spacecraft, and was launched from Blue Origin’s Corn Ranch suborbital launch site in Texas, aboard the New Shepard booster NS4 and the spacecraft RSS First Step. The mission was historic because of a number of reasons. At 18 years of age, Oliver Daemen became the first ever commercial astronaut to purchase a ticket and fly to space on a privately-funded and licensed space vehicle from a private launch site, Blue Origin said on its website. Also, New Shepard became the first commercial vehicle under a suborbital reusable launch vehicle license to fly paying customers, both payloads and astronauts, to space and back. Jeff and Mark Bezos became the first siblings to fly in space together. At that time, Funk became the oldest person to travel to space, but the record was broken when William Shatner flew to space in October 2021 at the age of 90.
September 2021: SpaceX Inspiration4 Mission
Inspiration4 is the world's first all-civilian mission to orbit. Four non-professional astronauts blasted off into space aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon Resilience Spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from the historic launch complex 39-A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 15, 2021, at 8:02 pm EDT (5:32 am IST, Thursday). After staying in Earth orbit for three days, they returned to Earth on September 18, at 7:06 pm EDT (4:36 am IST, Sunday).
Inspiration4 was commanded by Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, and an accomplished pilot and adventurer. He was accompanied by Medical Officer Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and paediatric cancer survivor; Mission Specialist Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer; and Mission Pilot Dr. Sian Proctor, a geoscientist, entrepreneur, and trained pilot. Isaacman, Arceneaux, Sembroski, and Dr Sian represented the mission pillars of Leadership, Hope, Generosity and Prosperity, respectively.
The titles were largely honorary, as the crew had no role in spaceflight operation.
Their objective was to raise awareness and $200 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and study the human body in space. In recognition of the four-person crew, the mission was named Inspiration4. The mission had been able to raise nearly $154 million, which was about $50 million short of the intended goal of $200 million, for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Following the crew’s return to Earth, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted, 'Count me in for $50M’.
St. Jude tweeted showed gratitude towards Musk’s gesture through a tweet, which referenced the completion of the first all-civilian mission to orbit, and the fact that the intended amount of funds had been raised.
It was a mission with the first Black female spacecraft pilot, youngest American in space, and the first person to fly to space with a prosthetic.
October 2021: First Feature Film Shot In Space
A Russian film crew, comprising of actress Yulia Peresild, and film director Klim Shipenko, launched to the International Space Station on October 5, 2021 to shoot the first full-length, fictional movie in space. The mission, commanded by cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, was launched aboard the Soyuz MS-19 manned spacecraft to the ISS, from the Baikonur spaceport.
The crew stayed on the ISS for 12 days to film scenes for the first feature movie to be shot in space. The movie, with the working title ‘Vyozov’, meaning ‘The Challenge’, is a joint project by Roscosmos, Channel One and the Yellow, Black and White film studio.
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After spending 12 days in space, Peresild and Shipenko returned to Earth on October 17 aboard a Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft. The return mission was commanded by cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy. Most of the footage to be included in the film was shot in space, according to a Roscosmos statement.
In the Russian film, Peresild will be seen portraying a woman doctor who had to go to space to save a cosmonaut's life. ‘The Challenge’ will show the training received by the doctor before going to space and the challenges faced by her while treating the cosmonaut in the environment of the orbital outpost.
The movie will also feature Russian cosmonauts Shkaplerov, Novitskiy, and Pyotr Dubrov.
Scenes for the movie were shot on both the Russian and international segments of the ISS, including the Cupola module.
Quoting Konstantin Ernst, the head of Channel One TV Network and a co-producer of 'The Challenge', an AFP report said that the landing sequence will also be documented and featured in the movie.
October 2021: Blue Origin NS-18
William Shatner, the actor who played Captain Kirk in the Star Trek original series, blasted off into space on October 13, as part of Blue Origin’s NS-18 mission.
50 years after his debut as Captain Kirk in the Star Trek original series, William Shatner, 90, became the oldest man to go to space.
Shatner, accompanied by three other crew members, launched into space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-18, from Corn Ranch or Launch Site One, Texas. The other crew members of NS-18 included Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs; Glen de Vries, co-founder of clinical research platform Medidata solutions; and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's Vice President of Mission and Flight Operations. In November 2021, de Vries passed away in a tragic accident.
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The flight lasted approximately 11 minutes from liftoff to capsule landing and reached an altitude of 66.5 miles. Like the previous crewed mission of Blue Origin, this too was a suborbital flight.
The crew experienced three to four minutes of weightlessness and travelled above the Karman line.
December 2021: Soyuz MS-20 Mission
On December 8, 2021, Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, his production assistant Yozo Hirano, and veteran Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, launched aboard a Russian-built Soyuz capsule, to the ISS, as part of the Soyuz MS-20 mission. On December 9, they docked into the Poisk module of the Russian segment of the ISS. The mission marked the first self-funded space tourism mission to the ISS in a decade. Misurkin is the commander of the 12-day mission, and this is his third spaceflight.
The crewmembers are not a part of any Expedition of the orbital laboratory. Maezawa and Hirano are two space tourists represented by space tourism company Space Adventures. The mission, which is a collaboration between Russian space agency Roscosmos and Space Adventures, launched from Site 31/6 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The crew is slated to return to Earth on Monday, December 20.
December 2021: Blue Origin NS-19 Mission
As many as six passengers had a space joyride on Saturday, December 11, as their Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft took off at 8:45 am CST (8:15 pm IST) as part of the 19th New Shepard mission. The NS-19 mission was Blue Origin’s third crewed space flight, and was once again suborbital. Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of first US astronaut Alan Shepard, was one of the crewmembers. Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space in 1961, is now the second, second-generation astronaut in space — after Richard Garriott, who was the son of Skylab and space shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott.
This was Blue Origin's first spaceflight to fill all six seats aboard the New Shepard capsule. Apart from Churchley, the crew included Michael Strahan, Dylan Taylor, Evan Dick, Lane Bess, and Cameron Bess.
Like Churchley, Strahan was also an honorary, non-paying guest passenger chosen by Blue Origin. He is an American television personality, journalist, and a retired National Football League star.
The remaining four crew members paid undisclosed amounts for their first space trip.
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The NS-19 mission lasted roughly 11 minutes, and it marked the third space tourism flight for Blue Origin. The mission used the spacecraft RSS First Step, or the New Shepard 4 (NS4), to carry the crew.