1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910855377003321

Autore

Seedhouse Erik

Titolo

Commercial Astronauts : The Next Generation of Spacefarers / / by Erik Seedhouse

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer Nature Switzerland : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2024

ISBN

9783031556043

Edizione

[1st ed. 2024.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (241 pages)

Collana

Space Exploration, , 2731-541X

Disciplina

616.99424

Soggetti

Outer space - Exploration

Astronautics

Aerospace engineering

Space

Space Exploration and Astronautics

Aerospace Technology and Astronautics

Space Studies

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di contenuto

Chapter 1. Commercial Astronauts -- Chapter 2. The Commercial Spaceflight Market -- Chapter 3. Legal and Liability Considerations -- Chapter 4. Suborbital Operators -- Chapter 5. Orbital Operators -- Chapter 6. Operational Medicine -- Chapter 7. Training -- Chapter 8. Suborbital Missions -- Chapter 9. Orbital Missions.

Sommario/riassunto

The beginning of the 2020’s witnessed dozens of commercial astronauts fly to space on a variety of vehicles. These spacecraft included SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which supported the Inspiration4 and Axiom Space missions, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, which supported several suborbital science flights, and Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft, which not only flew celebrities but also its fair share of commercial astronauts. The story of this new breed of spacefarer has only just begun. As evidenced by these missions, commercial spaceflight has grown beyond passengers simply traveling to space just for the ride. With orbital flights involving commercial astronauts staying in space for several days and weeks, companies such as Sierra Space, Axiom Space and Blue Origin are preparing for the



next steps in commercial space travel which include the construction of orbiting habitats. But how will the opportunities for commercial astronauts develop, how will they be trained, and will this new group of astronauts evolve? This book describes how the commercial spaceflight industry is evolving, how it will continue to evolve as barriers to entry are reduced, competition grows, and costs are lowered, and how, because of these efforts, opportunities for commercial astronauts will increase.