Mankind initially entered into space in the early 1960’s, to be precise it was on the 12th of April 1961 when Yuri Gagarin in the Vostok 1 entered space. His journey lasted for an hour and 48 minutes. This was just the beginning of space travel, satellite launches, exploration missions and finally colonization out of the planet.

Space travel is currently in dreams of many conmen and women around the globe.  Recently, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos blasted in space on his rocket company Blue Origin’s first flight. He is now a second billionaire to ride his own spacecraft. This raised several speculations all around the world.

The Nehru Science Centre (Mumbai) in association with the Aeronautical Society of India, Mumbai Branch organised an online lecture on ‘Space Tourism: The Next Frontier’ on Tuesday (July 27, 2021). Dr. Punita Masrani, Aerospace Medicine Specialist, V. M. Medical Centre, Mumbai in the online discussion took note of various aspects of the commercial space travel in the lecture.

Dr. Punita stated that NASA and the Russian Space Agency had earlier started taking tourists for space travel calling the process exorbitant and stringent. A spacecraft called Russian Soyuz used to take tourists every 6 months. ‘Space Adventures was the first agency in the field of Space Tourism. The agency was started by US billionaire Richard Garriot in 1998. The agency offered brokered rides aboard the Russian Soyuz Rockets’ Dr. Punita said. While both NASA and the Russian Space Agency halted space tourism, industrialists and entrepreneurs thought they could start private missions so that more and more people could travel to space. This gave birth to the concept of Space tourism, Dr Punita added.

Further, Dr. Punita while concluding the lecture, also discussed that the science involved risk, awareness, concerns, and medical informed consent which are essential parts of tourism. She further explained possible post flight medical conditions and impact of space travel on the human body and brain.

Although currently it might seem next to impossible to travel to space, in the coming future technological advancements and the changing conditions on earth will teach us to adapt to these new things.