The view will be one unlike any other.
Climbing up through the clouds at a rate faster than the speed of sound, the sky will darken to a deep blue and then to black. Below, entire mountain ranges, coastlines and cities will shift into focus as the horizon bends around the curvature of the Earth - the thin veil of its atmosphere shimmering against a backdrop of stars.
And then, of course, there will be the feeling of weightlessness.
“It is just life changing,” said Col. Richard Searfoss, a retired NASA shuttle commander.”To be outside the atmosphere and see the curvature of the Earth and see so much land area at once, it gives you a sense of separateness but connectedness.”
The view of Earth from outer space is a sight that in the history of mankind only a few hundred people have ever seen. But that could soon change as what was once an almost nonexistent space tourism industry slowly matures into what some analysts predict could be a billion dollar enterprise with thousands of passengers by the end of the next decade.
“This is just the beginning of the golden age of space flight,” said Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation, which awarded the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for the first privately funded human flight to the edge of space.”Looking back a thousand years from now, this will be the period of time when the human race irrevocably moved off the planet.”
First Space Lawyer Launches Past the Bar
0 Comments Published May 12th, 2008 in Private Space Business
A student at the University of Mississippi will leap into the final frontier of the legal system Saturday when he receives the first-ever space law certificate in the United States.
Michael Dodge of Long Beach, Miss., earned the special distinction along with his law degree through the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law at the university’s law school.
“The professors and personnel here are the highest quality that can be found anywhere in the world, and I have learned from them the necessary skills I will need to effectively practice space law,” Dodge said in a statement. “Ole Miss is, simply put, the space law expert, and anyone wishing practice in this field should get their legal education here.”
Any future space lawyer might have to deal with issues ranging from the fallout over satellite shoot-downs to legal disputes between astronauts onboard the International Space Station. The expanding privatization of the space sector may also pose new legal challenges.
Genesis I, the first test module launched by commercial space habitat developer Bigelow Aerospace, has completed its 10,000th orbit around the Earth. The unmanned module is about to start its third year in space since it ushered in a new era of private space development following its July 12, 2006 launch.
Since it was lifted into orbit, Genesis I has continued to perform its main mission to test and verify systems to be used in future manned space habitats. A one-third scale model of the future BA 330 space complex modules, Genesis I performed the first successful test of expandable space habitat technology in orbit.
In its 660 days in orbit, Genesis I has traveled the equivalent of more than 270 million miles, which would take it to the Moon and back 1,154 times.
During its perpetual trip around the Earth, Genesis I has seen every corner of the globe. The spacecraft’s on-board camera system has recorded approximately 14,000 images including images of all seven continents. Many of the images can be seen in the Genesis I Archive.
While people back on Earth take care to turn off the light when they leave a room, the lights have stayed on inside Genesis I. Electrical equipment on board have been churning away for 15,840 consecutive hours.
Bigelow Aerospace, based in Las Vegas, followed up Genesis I by launching sister spacecraft Genesis II on June 28, 2007, and is currently at work on Sundancer, its first module designed to support a human crew.
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