ISLAMABAD – The International Day of Human Space Flight will be marked tomorrow across the globe including Pakistan. As a day that is epic in every sense of the word and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first female flight in space, the theme of year 2013 would be “Women and space”.
The UN General Assembly said that the day will be “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in his message on this occasion that: “I am confident that the International Day of Human Space Flight will remind us of our common humanity and our need to work together to conquer shared challenges. I hope it will also inspire young people in particular to pursue their dreams and move the world towards new frontiers of knowledge and understanding.”
Russia is still using its faithful Soyuz spacecraft to send men to the International Space Station, including US astronauts for the small fee of about $62 million.
Getting civilians into space is now becoming a new determination for exploration, paving the way for new kinds of technologies for space travel. Space tourism is the future of human space flight, and companies like Virgin Galactic are aiming to make it possible for anyone to experience a new vantage point of Earth for $200,000.
Space Adventures, a company founded in 1998, has already been giving civilians the opportunity to get their space travel on. Dennis Tito became the world’s first private space explorer in April 2001 after launching aboard Soyuz TM-32.
Since Tito embarked on an adventure into the abyss, Space Adventures has sent out six other civilians to experience life outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, with prices costing $20 million and up.
Space Adventures is not setting its sights just on low-orbit missions, the company is also planning to send future space travelers to our celestial neighbour, the moon.