TRENDING SCIENCE: Citizens in orbit: welcome to the new space age!

This past July, the world took notice when two insanely rich people, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, shot up to space on rockets built by their business empires.

The trips were short, lasting several minutes, and they didn’t even make it to orbit. But oh, what fun! To mark the occasion, Branson even popped open a bottle of bubbly when he touched down. One indulgence feeding another.

Hey, if we can do it, so can you, was the carefully crafted message. Well, not exactly. The ticket for commercialised space travel is just out of the price range of the average consumer.These two space-obsessed rivals have their sights set on this lucrative industry. They’re competing to corner the market. Now throw in the rink fellow gazillionaire Elon Musk. In fact, he outdid both of his competitors with a multi-day journey that became the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit.

On Saturday, 18 September, four amateur astronauts, or space tourists, splashed down off the coast of Florida. They returned to Earth after spending three days in space. It was the first orbital mission that carried no professional astronauts on board.

Called Inspiration4, the mission was led by 38-year-old billionaire Jared Isaacman, chief executive of the e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments Inc. Apparently, he paid Musk a cool EUR 170 million for the 4 seats. The goal was to explore the effect being in space would have on non-professionals.

“That was a heck of a ride for us,” tweeted ‘commander’ Isaacman after splashing down safely, “and we’re just getting started.”

The so-called captain hand-picked the other three American passengers. They were all strangers to him. Sian Proctor, geoscientist and former NASA astronaut candidate, Hayley Arceneaux, physician assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor, and Chris Sembroski, United States Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer. Arceneaux became the youngest American in space.

The four trained for six months. Computer systems controlled the spacecraft and were overseen by Musk’s teams back on Earth. The crew circled our planet over 15 times a day!

The space ride also had another goal: to raise awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States. About EUR 170 million has been raised so far for Arceneaux, who works at the hospital and was a patient there when she was young.

“Welcome to the second space age,” commented mission director Todd Ericson after the landing. Following this mission, “space travel becomes much more accessible to average men and women.”United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres isn’t amused by the space follies of the filthy rich and famous. He let world leaders know about how he felt during his opening speech to the General Assembly on 21 September: “billionaires joyriding to space while millions go hungry on earth.”

Is it all about boosting knowledge of the universe or egos? So, if you had a very big wallet, would you go along for the ride and earn your civilian astronaut wings? Or would you prefer to spend your fortune on resources here on Earth to fight the climate crisis and world hunger?