washingtonpost OP t1_j438fv3 wrote
Reply to comment by Ok_Habit_202 in I’m a Washington Post space reporter here with a former NASA astronaut to discuss the future of space travel. Ask us anything. by washingtonpost
From Christian Davenport:
I touched on the future of space in a previous post, but for space tourism, there's been ups and downs. Virgin Galactic flew its flight with Richard Branson ... and hasn't flown since. It's been refurbishing its vehicles and says it'll start commercial operations in the second quarter of this year. We'll see. Blue Origin had flown a series of flights and then had an engine failure and has been grounded while they investigate. They hope to resume flying this year. SpaceX has the Polaris program, funded by Jared Isaacman, which is really interesting. After flying the first all private-citizen crew for the Inspiration4 flight, he's set to do another mission this year that would feature a space walk. That's a big deal and requires a lot of training and is in preparation for the next flight, which could boost the orbit of the Hubble telescope, allowing it to remain in operation for years to come. I got a first-hand look at how the crew is preparing by flying in a fighter jet with Jared. It was pretty awesome. (And, no, I didn't throw up.) You can read about that here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/02/astronaut-training-fighter-jets/
In addition to the Polaris program, SpaceX is flying private astronauts for a company called Axiom Space, and expects another of those flights, to the ISS, this year as well.
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