Tim Peake has blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS). He will be the first British astronaut to travel to the station in 20 years, after six years of training.
Peake’s is an institutional mission of international collaboration. Almost 50 years ago, at the height of the Cold War, this collaboration led to the drafting of the Outer Space Treaty 1967, which called on state parties to it to “regard astronauts as envoys of mankind in outer space.”
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The Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts 1968 articulated protection and assistance to “personnel of a spacecraft” rather than “astronauts” — this was a time when almost exclusively state astronauts would participate in space flights.
Human Spacecraft
According to George Whitesides of Virgin Galactic, the first commercial flights into space will be launched in Spring 2016 for those who can afford the 155,000 British pounds ticket. Seven hundred people have bought a ticket to become a “citizen astronaut” or a “human spaceflight participant.”
“The discussion about [Dennis Tito’s] presence on the Russian module quickly led to the formal establishment of a category of space traveler different from that of a professional astronaut — that of the ‘spaceflight participant,'” Frans von der Dunk from the University of Nebraska explains.
Good Samaritan
Whether or not a human spaceflight participant is technically an astronaut or not is almost irrelevant to the inspiration that such achievements can give to children and students, particularly in STEM subjects. The younger generations need to feel that they can achieve the “right stuff” to fulfill ambitions.
Congratulations and good luck Tim — “may the force be with you.” VS
Joanne Wheeler is a communications partner at Bird & Bird specializing in communications, satellite and space law.
