Sky Matters: Space tourism and climate change 

For the first time since Yuri Gagarin completed a single orbit of the Earth in 1961 we’re seeing motivated, talented and determined individuals in private companies working on new modes of space transportation

Oliver Daemen, from left, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin, Wally Funk and Bezos' brother Mark pose for photos in front of the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, derby, after their launch from the spaceport near Van Horn, Texas, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. 

It has been interesting to watch the first excursions of “ordinary people” into “space” recently. Possibly a different definition of “ordinary” than the one I’m used to, especially when I compare my bank balance with theirs. That aside, it does underline just how quickly the accessibility to space is moving away from being the sole preserve of the large space agencies. Firstly Virgin Galactic, then Blue Origin and finally Space X – these companies have all brought “ordinary people” into “space”. And it’s that word “space” that need some careful thought. When do you actually go into “space”?

The idea of a boundary line where the Earth’s atmosphere ends and space begins evoked a lot of discussion in the early 1960’s, because spacecraft and aircraft are subject to different laws. The idea of the “Karman Line” – a height of 100km above the average sea level on Earth – was brought into being to deal with this. If you were below 100km you are an aircraft – if above 100km a spacecraft. In reality the Earth’s atmosphere peters out slowly rather than ends abruptly, so the 100km has no meaningful basis in science, only in law (and even then it’s not universally accepted – space law is an absolute minefield!).