To Infinity and Beyond: The Start Of Space Tourism - By Vaishnavi E. P.

Aah! how the never-ending universe teases us with its mystery to explore, creating a stirring appetite to utilize it, unable to quench. If only Star Wars was a reality, then we would have truly wished each other “May the force be with you”, with pride of being a part of such an extraordinary reality. Our idealistic young selves dreamt of a future straight out of our wild imaginations, a one that would be full of flying spaceships, robots with human intelligence, escaping into space, real-life video games, self-automated technology, lightsaber weapons, and whatnot.

But wait, have one of these dreams already manifested itself into reality? Indeed, it has, and it is none other than space tourism!

As you might have already guessed, it would not be a homeless man on the street that could have possibly done it, so the next best option is.. the richest man in the world? The one and only Jeff Bezos, who is known to have previously served as the chairman, president, and the CEO of Amazon, can also add ‘revolutionizing space flights’, as the next feather in his cap -- A historic feat in spaceflight history which inspired a whole generation of engineers, astronauts, scientists, and explorers.

The first step towards commercial, civil, national security, and human spaceflight was a culmination of the creativity, innovation, money, and intellect of so many people for almost two decades. His 18-year-old self would dream of making space hotels, amusement parks, and colonies for 2 to 3 million people, and would later be on the path to manifest it. This all started to take shape the moment Blue Origin was established in 2000. 15 days after stepping down as the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos announced that he would launch off to space on 20 July 2021, which marked the 52nd anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing, which eventually would be the, as he quoted, “best day ever!”. Blue Origin, which is an American privately-funded aerospace manufacturer, built the spaceflight, New Shephard, and carried its first four passengers into suborbital space. Those four passengers, who included Jeff Bezos, were not necessarily astronauts. Imagine-- an 82-year lady who would not complain of back pain every time she took a step. If you can't, let me enlighten you when I tell you that one of the four passengers was an 82-year-old and was apparently the most experienced out of the four and experienced 3 times of earth’s gravity on her body-- and is still alive. The old lady is Wally Funk, accompanied by Jeff Bezos’s brother Mark Bezos and Oliver Daemen - an 18-year-old who won the auction for the seat worth 28 million dollars! The stubby rocket and capsule rose from the Blue Origins site, Kent, Washington, U.S.A, and left for the 11-minute ride from earth to beyond the Kármán line, which is 100 km above the earth and defines the cut-off point of the earth’s atmosphere.

However, this event has received some serious backlash and mockery from the public – from comparing Jeff Bezos to fictional characters like Dr. Evil from an American spy action comedy Austin powers to mocking how Jeff Bezos thanked all the employees and customers of Amazon who paid for this trip despite recent reports of him not treating his employees sufficiently and further dubbing it as the capitalist style of the billionaire space race. Jeff Bezos is infamous for not paying taxes in 2007 and 2011, and this combined with the recent criticism of dangerous working conditions of the employees, put him at the heart of the slander considering the amount of money he invested to make the launch happen. As he quoted at the press conference, “I also want to thank every amazon employee and amazon customer, because you guys paid for all of this, so seriously, or every Amazon customer out there, and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart, very much, It’s very appreciated”. Even if he said this in a jest, lawmakers and common people were far from amused. The space expedition, lasting for only 11 minutes, has been heavily criticized for being a rollercoaster for billionaires and has been condemned how the money could have been used to give a pay rise to his employees, climate change or lift all children – if not in space – at least out of poverty. Talking of climate change, Blue Origin claimed that no harmful gases are emitted from this rocket, the only exhaust is water, however, when it took off from the ground, it leads to a lot of heat being generated, which in turn accelerates the photochemical reactions, and that increases the ozone levels at the ground level, which was yet another point being attacked.

An ambitious Jeff Bezos paves the way as he expressed the need to move all heavy, polluting industries out into space and take care of the earth. With a seat costing 250,000 dollars, there are doubts regarding the future and accessibility of space tourism, moreover the environmental impact of it. While looking out of the window of the capsule in space, one could feel his emotions tickling one's body - this planet earth, with shades of blue and green peeking out of its clouds, as if it gleams like a lapis lazuli crystal waltzing in the midst of nowhere, looks so lonely out there by itself, yet it is not - since we are there for this planet, for it nourishes us the same way as we eliminate its seclusion. Our home needs to be taken care of when we head out there. Therefore as creatures who evolved from apes to humans, we continue to thrive, solve our problems, and evolutionize because our limits are indeed – infinity and beyond.