What quirky tradition do astronauts have before launching into space?

[nduka-san]

it's been 60 years since humanity entered space. What are your favorite things about space or hidden space history tidbits?

mine is On the 12 April 1961, the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin asked the bus driver to stop on the route to the launchpad and urinated against the right-hand back tire of the bus. This act has become a tradition for all astronauts traveling into space. Female astronauts bring vials of their urine to splash on the wheel.

 

[BWV]

Always found it interesting that 50-60 years ago people assumed space travel would progress like aviation. People in the 1960s had commercial jet travel 60 some years after the Wright brothers, so SF writers and other futurists projected this progress on space travel and assumed we would now be living in a world like in the 2001 movie.

 

[waternohitter]

The space between galaxies is not completely empty but has an average of one atom per cubic meter. There are an estimated 100-400 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The universe is observed to be 13.8 billion years old and has been expanding since its formation in the Big Bang.

 

[mfb]

@BWV: It took a bit longer, but we can expect the first touristic spaceflight within the next two years, and likely multiple flights.

Suborbital (~$200,000/passenger):
The New Shepard capsule that's expected to fly passengers has been tested in flight. It has a realistic chance to fly people this year.
The SpaceShipTwo vehicle that's expected to fly passengers (VSS Unity) has flown several times and recently got a passenger cabin. It has flown people many times, but only crew so far. Might get paying passengers this year or next year.

Orbital (~$50 million/passenger):
Crew Dragon is operational and has flown NASA and JAXA astronauts already. Inspiration-4 is a planned tourism mission for December 2021, AX-1 is a planned tourism mission for January 2022 and Space Adventures mission is a planned tourism mission for late 2021 or early 2022. We can expect delays, but we can also expect at least one of them to fly before the end of 2022.

This is far more expensive than airline travel, of course, but these flights can lead to the funding that makes it more affordable over time.

 

[BWV]

@BWV: It took a bit longer, but we can expect the first touristic spaceflight within the next two years, and likely multiple flights.

Suborbital (~$200,000/passenger):
The New Shepard capsule that's expected to fly passengers has been tested in flight. It has a realistic chance to fly people this year.
The SpaceShipTwo vehicle that's expected to fly passengers (VSS Unity) has flown several times and recently got a passenger cabin. It has flown people many times, but only crew so far. Might get paying passengers this year or next year.

Orbital (~$50 million/passenger):
Crew Dragon is operational and has flown NASA and JAXA astronauts already. Inspiration-4 is a planned tourism mission for December 2021, AX-1 is a planned tourism mission for January 2022 and Space Adventures mission is a planned tourism mission for late 2021 or early 2022. We can expect delays, but we can also expect at least one of them to fly before the end of 2022.

This is far more expensive than airline travel, of course, but these flights can lead to the funding that makes it more affordable over time.

The first transpacific flights on Pan Am clippers in the 1930s cost less than $40K in today's dollars, but the key point is this is not actual travel - there is no destination here, its an extreme adventure and status expenditure. People had compelling personal and economic reasons for air travel which may never exist for space. Maybe the dying on Mars thing that became trendy in Silicon Valley a few years back, will become a reality, but I suspect that talk like this is easy for a 30-40 year old.

 

[mfb]

Suborbital Earth to Earth flights would have a destination with a large demand now, but that would compete with airplanes. Space tourism has space as destination and no competing mode of transportation.