12 humans in space!
Published on Sep 18, 2006 at 12:24 pm.
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Filed under space exploration.
Twelve. With the launch of the Soyuz rocket yesterday, that is how many people are now in orbit around the Earth. There are three people aboard the Soyuz, which will dock with the ISS in a couple of days. Atlantis, which recently undocked from the ISS has six astronauts aboard. And, there are three people aboard the International Space Station. I do not know for sure, but this may be a record. I certainly can’t remember when there were twelve humans in space simultaneously. In addition to the docking and undocking going on with manned missions at the ISS, the crew is also getting ready to jettison a spent Progress cargo module. There really is a lot of activity going on at the space station right now!
Even if it isn’t a record, twelve astronauts in space at once is a significant feat, and something that should have happened long ago, and often. If we are serious about space exploration and exploitation, we need to make manned space travel more commonplace. In the early days, of course, space travel was a big deal. No one had done it before. But, we’ve been in space for over four decades. In that time, we should have moved from the occasional government launch of a research mission to commercial space launches. Private companies have gotten into unmanned launches, for sure. But, commercial manned spaceflight is only just getting going. There are now several companies working to promote space tourism. The next step would be for private companies to start to offer satellite repair missions. After so long with just a few government missions per year, we are finally starting to see a surge in private space business.
And it is interesting to see the space station getting some activity. Eventually, this sort of activity should be common on multiple space stations in orbit. One day, we might look to 1200 people in space at once being a big deal, and not just 12.
-Astroprof
