“There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”
– Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1952 – 2001)
With Bob Geldof just having announced that he too signed up to travel into space as a passenger on a commercial space flight, let’s have a look at a small portion of this eclectic mix of celebrities, scientists, and entrepeneurs who have taken the same leap of faith already and dug deep into their pockets for it.
Scientist Professor Stephen Hawking – the man needs no introduction. Having more acronyms behind his name than a systems architect’s CV, including being a Commander in the Order of the British Empire, he is not only the most famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist who’s ever lived, but possibly also the most famous disabled person on the planet. This came to show with his appearance at the London 2012 Paralympics in which he had a major part. He is the author of several books that made space science popular with the masses and truly a living legend and inspiration to us all. Probably also the only person to receive a free Virgin Galactic ticket! Not only to fulfill his own dream of going into space, but to raise awareness for what he sees as humanity’s vital mission to explore the stars.
Designer Philippe Starck – the son of an aeronautics engineer, Starck is equally well known as an interior designer, a designer of consumer goods, and for his industrial design and his architectural creations. His concept of democratic design led him to focus on mass-produced consumer goods rather than one-off pieces, seeking ways to reduce cost and improve quality in mass-market goods. He has several restaurants to his credit and for the past thirty years has been designing hotels all over the world. Starck was also the first designer to participate in the TED Talks (Technology, Entertainment & Design).
Entrepreneur and inventor Elon Musk – see here
Comedian Russell Brand – awkward! Brand’s ticket was bought for his 35th birthday by his ex-wife Katy Perry. After hosting Big Brother’s Big Mouth where he achieved notoriety, had starred in several movies including Forgetting Sarah Marshall and did voice acting for Despicable Me and its sequel just recently. In the dictionary it would probably have his picture next to the word ‘eccentric’ and while he managed to get himself fired from both MTV and the BBC in a very public manner because of his behaviour, it’s his past with drugs and alcohol that influences much of his comedic material.
Bob Geldof – Irish singer-songwriter and political activist, Geldof rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. He co-wrote “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, one of the best-selling singles of all time, but Geldof is these days perhaps even more known for his activism, especially his anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa. In 1984 he co-founded Band Aid and went on to organise the charity super-concert Live Aid among other pursuits. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and was granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, among numerous other awards and nominations.
“The earth is simply too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in.”
– Arthur C. Clarke
“Don’t tell me that man doesn’t belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go — and he’ll do plenty well when he gets there.”
– Wernher von Braun (1912 – 1977) in a 1958 Time Magazine interview
“Anyone who sits on top of the largest hydrogen-oxygen fueled system in the world, knowing they’re going to light the bottom, and doesn’t get a little worried, does not fully understand the situation.”
– John Young (1930), after being asked if he was nervous about making the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981.
Sir Richard Branson‘s Virgin Galactic is pushing things into high gear, with the recent appointment of two heavy hitters. At the start of July it announced the appointment of Doug Shane as Executive Vice President and General Manager of The Spaceship Company (TSC) which as you might remember from reading here, began as a joint venture between Virgin and Scaled Composites (Scaled) to build a fleet of spaceships. Shane will be overseeing the manufacturing company and it looks like they could not have picked a better person. His 31 year career at Scaled saw him being their test pilot, Director of Flight Operations and VP of Business Development, before serving as President for the past five years after the retirement of company founder Burt Rutan.
Then 2 weeks later, it made another big appointment by making Steven J. Isakowitz President of Virgin Galactic, where he already served as Executive Vice President and CTO since joining in 2011. This is a man who worked for NASA, was the CFO of the U.S. Department of Energy through two presidential administrations, served as Branch Chief of Science and Space Programs at the White House and was an aerospace engineer and project manager for Lockheed Martin. Bags of experience would be an understatement!
Virgin Galactic seems to be on track to become the world’s first commercial spaceline alright, making the right moves to establish itself as the benchmark organisation as it expands in preparation for commercial operations. 2014 is going to be one exciting year!
“Our story is the story of the universe. Every piece of everyone, of everything you love and everything you hate, of the thing you hold most precious, was assembled by the forces of nature in the first few minutes of the life of the universe, transformed in the hearts of the stars or created in their fiery deaths. And when you die, those pieces will be returned to the universe in the endless cycle of death and rebirth. What a wonderful thing it is to be part of that universe. And what a story, what a majestic story.”
– Professor Brian Cox (1968)
“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.”
– Gene Roddenberry (1921 – 1991)
Few events influenced humanity so much as the feat Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin achieved in April 1961, when he became the first human to reach outer space and completed an orbit in his Vostok Spacecraft – what also turned out to be his only flight into space. A victory for the Soviet Union over the United States which was heavily investing resources into the space race itself, they endowed upon Gagarin the highest of honours, the “Hero of the Soviet Union” medal. It was to be one of dozens of honours, medals and titles he was about to receive.
Yuri Gagarin didn’t have an easy upbringing. Like many millions of his generation, his family suffered during the Nazi occupation in WWII. Not only was their residence taken over by a German officer and the family ended up little in a tiny hut they built on their own land, but his two older siblings were deported to Poland for slave labour (they did luckily return alive after the war in 1945). Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps it was his destiny when he was selected for further training at the Saratov Industrial Technical School (where he studied tractors), but who could have expected this youth to become the legend that he is today when he volunteered for weekend training as a Soviet air cadet at a local aeronautics club. It is there where he learned to fly, while earning some money on the side as a dock laborour.
After graduating from that technical school in 1955, Gagarin got drafted and was sent to an Air Force Pilot School where he flew the MiG-15 solo by 1957 – the same type of craft that would also play a role in his tragic end – and graduated (and married) the same year. It was in 1960 when after a rigorous selection process, Gagarin was chosen with 19 other pilots for the Soviet space program. He also ended up in the elite training group known as the Sochi Six, from which the first cosmonauts for the Vostok program would be chosen. When it came to the final selection, it was to be between him and Gherman Titov to be the first human to go into space. Of course much of this was to do with their performance during training sessions – Gagarin was extremely clever having no issues with higher mathematics and celestial mechanics – but perhaps not so often talked about was that Gagarin came in at a diminutive 1m57 or 5ft2, and space was at a premium in the Vostok capsule.
Another interesting fact was that in an anonymous vote amongst him and his peers to see who they would think should get the honour of being the first person to launch into space, Gagarin was the favourite with over 80 percent of the vote. A footnote that would transcend its boundaries when after his historic flight he became the icon the Soviet Union needed to promote their space achievements across the world. With his broad smile, Gagarin won over the hearts of millions in many countries he traveled to. In fact, he became so important to the Soviet Union that in the end Gagarin got banned from training for and participating in any further spaceflights. More on that next time in part 2, so stay tuned!
“Circling the Earth in my orbital spaceship I marveled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance this beauty — not destroy it!”
– Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1968)