The title 'astronaut' is one of the rarest designations a human can have: only 652 people on our planet have ventured into space.
Figuring out how to leave Earth on a rocket was truly such a difficult task that it required resources and manpower that only a government-scale operation like NASA could provide. And only in the early days of the space race Experienced military pilots (usually white men) were accepted into NASA's astronaut rankswhich drastically limited the US's opportunity to go to space
However, in recent decades the The space travel landscape has changed significantly. NASA is no longer the sole steward of America's spaceflight, and many private companies –SpaceX, Blue origin, Virgo Galactic, and more – have now successfully launched humans into space. Some of these companies claim that their goal is to make space travel more accessible to the public, but it is still a unique and rare opportunity to participate in one of these missions. Who actually becomes an astronaut these days?
When most Americans think of an astronaut, images of highly trained and ridiculously impressive NASA employees performing spacewalks probably come to mind. Since the 1980s, with the dawn of the Space Shuttle ProgramNASA missions not only include military pilots, but also mission specialists whose expertise lay in some form of science or engineering. Nowadays, NASA astronaut applications are open to anyone who meets the basic requirements: U.S. citizenship, a master's degree in STEM, three years of professional experience after earning the degree, and the ability to complete a physical education degree.
[ Related: How to apply to be a NASA astronaut ]
Being a NASA astronaut is a full-time job, but even in the 1980s there were a handful of people who were not professional astronauts reached space on the shuttle. For example, Senator Jake Garn of Utah flew on board spaceship Discovery in 1985And Florida Congressman Bill Nelson (better known for his more recent role as NASA administrator) left the following year on the space shuttle Colombia. Both Garn and Nelson were important figures on the government committees that oversaw NASA's budget and operations.
However, the Space Shuttle flights were still strictly part of NASA's domain. The first non-NASA-sponsored American space flight did not take place until 2001 founder of investment company Dennis Tito shot out one a whopping $20 million dollars to go to the International Space Station. His ride came courtesy of the Russian Soyuz programwho worked for an American company Space adventures to sell spots on their missions to anyone who could pay. Space Adventures took six more paying customers to the ISS in the 2000s, including an entrepreneur, a video game developer and a technology billionaire.
There are still plenty of wealthy people today who pay to go to space – some for just minutes to hours a quick up and down trip, like Virgin Galactic flightsjust reached the agreed upon boundary of space known as the Karman line 62 miles above sea level. The prices for a seat on Virgin Galactic costs just under half a million dollarsAnd Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos and Amazon's space project) is beautiful secretive about their prices, seemingly tailoring their costs to what applicants can afford. “Yes, it is expensive,” said French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron, who flew with Blue Origins earlier this year, to French news channel AFP. But it's “not completely crazy either,” he added. “There are those who would buy a nice red car with this money.”
However, if you don't have the cash, there are other ways to get on one of these flights. As these companies take off, many private astronauts are employees of the company managing the launch, to ensure everything runs smoothly and to see how they can improve their technology. On Virgin Galactic for example, Bet Moses flies as a professional astronaut instructor for the company and Christopher Huie as a senior member of their engineering team.
Others were specifically chosen and sponsored by an organization, such as Hayley Arceneauxa cancer survivor sponsored by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to ride The inspiration of SpaceX4, the first fully civilian space mission. Arceneaux's flight was the first for a childhood cancer survivor and the first for an astronaut with a prosthesis. Recently there was also a spot on Blue Origin given to Ed Dwight, America's first black astronaut at NASA who never actually got to flycorrecting a decades-old mistake.
Scientific organizations have also sponsored sending their researchers to make new discoveries. Virgin Galactic's fifth mission in 2023 sent planetary scientist Alan Stern And science communicator Kellie Gerardi to collect biological data, wear monitors on themselves to understand the impact of launch and reentry on our bodies. Their flights were supported by the Southwest Research Institute-as part of a NASA initiative to get researchers into space-and the International Institute of Space Sciencesrespectively.
Finally, and perhaps the most democratic of the current options, a handful of people have won seats on a ride to space through a competition or philanthropic fundraiser. Inspiration4 offered Sian Proctor a spot for winning a competition using Shift4Shopthe trading platform of the mission's private financier, Jared IsaacmanDuring that same mission, a seat was randomly assigned to Chris Sembroski as a donor to a St. Jude fundraiser; in the same way, Kiesha Schahaff won two spots on Virgin Galactic through a fundraiser for nonprofit Space for Humanity.
Considering that most of the astronauts described above have flown within the last five years, private spaceflight is just beginning. Flying an airplane was an expensive luxury a century agoand now it's completely commonplace – perhaps spaceflight could follow a similar path and slowly become more accessible.
