It’s time to review the recent suborbital tourist flights!
I’m going to put aside the bullshit billionaire space races hype, and just concentrate on answering this question: “If someone gave me a free ticket for a trip on either SpaceShipTwo or New Shepard, which trip would I pick?”
So money is no object, and I’m going to assume safety isn’t an issue either.
Before these highly publicised flights, I assumed I’d prefer New Shepard. It seems like more of a classic space launch experience. You walk across a gantry, strap into a seat in a capsule, and feel the power of a rocket under your ass. It flies higher, above the 100km line. Then it lands under a parachute, which I think is super cool.
But then, watching the footage from inside the New Shepard capsule, I noticed a few things. First, there isn’t much space. The massive emergency abort rocket is right in the middle of the capsule! Everyone was bumping into it! Second, the windows might be big windows, but they face OUT and not DOWN. Sure, the capsule is a long way up, but the main view is sideways across the top of the atmosphere, not looking down at where you’ve come from, nor are you able to look down and see where you might land.
It seems that Wally Funk, long time aspiring astronaut, had similar issues: Not enough time in zero G, not an amazing view, overall mission too short, and too cramped to be really fun.
The experience is obviously exciting and interesting, but now, to me, it feels like it’s trying to capture the feeling of true space flight, and falling short.
On the other hand, before these competing flights, I assumed SpaceShipTwo wasn’t a classic space flight experience, because all it did is match a mission profile of the X-15, the experimental rocket powered plane from the 1960’s.
Now I realise that matching a mission profile of the FASTEST and HIGHEST FLYING plane in history is FUCKING COOL. Like the x-15, SpaceShipTwo is slung under a carrier aircraft. It’s dropped from the mother ship, then lights its rocket, pulls back and flies up into “space”. It then does something unique, which is flip over backwards, then it falls belly-down until it’s slow enough, then glides down to the runway and lands like the X-15 on wheels/skids.
But on top of the X-15-style mission, you’re allowed to get out of your seat and no the zero-G nonsense. And unlike the New Shepard, there seems to be plenty of room to do the flips and tumbles. There’s an entire open section behind the rear seats reserved just for zero-G antics.
You also get a way cooler view. The ship flips over, so the ceiling windows are now pointing directly down at the ground. And weirdly, I’m much more attracted to the round porthole-looking windows of SpaceShipTwo over the fairground-ride-looking windows of New Shepard.
And as another bonus, the fact that SpaceShipTwo is piloted by humans makes the entire trip feel more badass. They are up in the cockpit, with cool helmets and visors and shit. The autonomous systems of the New Shepard are probably safer, but do you want to be a payload in a mindless capsule, or do you want to go flying with these guys?
So my conclusion is clear. As a suborbital space flight tourist, I don’t want a watered down version of what the first part of a rocket launch into space might feel like. Instead, I want a similar experience to some of the coolest space place missions of the 60’s, but now packaged in a safe and accessible way, with extra bonuses like zero-G flippy time and cool views.
Sign me up for SpaceShipTwo!
Or, alternatively, let the hypothetical ticket be valid for a Inspiration4-style trip in a Crew Dragon.
