{"id":17783,"date":"2020-02-28T00:56:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T16:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/two-time-spaceflier-charles-simonyi-offers-advice-for-commercial-space-travelers\/"},"modified":"2020-02-28T00:56:18","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T16:56:18","slug":"two-time-spaceflier-charles-simonyi-offers-advice-for-commercial-space-travelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/two-time-spaceflier-charles-simonyi-offers-advice-for-commercial-space-travelers\/","title":{"rendered":"Two-time spaceflier Charles Simonyi offers advice for commercial space travelers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Charles
With a photo of his Soyuz launch in the background, Microsoft\u2019s Charles Simonyi talks about spaceflight\u2019s physical effects at a Hacker News Seattle Meetup. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Microsoft billionaire Charles Simonyi is the only man on Earth to buy a multimillion-dollar ride to orbit not just once, but twice \u2014 so it\u2019s worth considering the advice he has for future commercial spacefliers:<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t sweat the small stuff,\u201d he said at a Hacker News Seattle Meetup on Wednesday evening. \u201cDon\u2019t worry, be happy. It\u2019s going to work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least that\u2019s the advice he gave a 9-year-old girl who attended Simonyi\u2019s talk. He noted that the girl, who came to the event with her mother, was about the same age as one of his daughters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m convinced that people of your age will go to space,\u201d Simonyi told her. \u201cNot that they\u2019ll live there. But I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anybody here who hasn\u2019t flown, right? So it\u2019s going to be somewhat the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simonyi first flew to the International Space Station in 2007 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a weeklong stay in orbit. Then he signed up for another trip in 2009. The precise prices for those trip haven\u2019t been disclosed, but they were rumored to be in the range of $25 million to $35 million each. He did say the second trip was cheaper than the first one, in part because he was taking advantage of someone else\u2019s cancellation.<\/p>\n

Why take two trips? \u201cThe second time, in a way, was much better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Simonyi compared the experience to seeing a favorite movie for a second time. \u201cYou notice things that you hadn\u2019t had a chance to notice the first time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Only about 500 people have flown to space over the past 60 years, but that number could rise significantly in the next year or two.<\/p>\n

Two space ventures backed by billionaires, Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin, could conceivably start flying passengers on suborbital spaceships this year. And SpaceX, the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has just made a deal with Virginia-based Space Adventures to send up to four people into orbit for several days, in a Crew Dragon spaceship that could be launched in late 2021 or 2022.<\/p>\n

Space Adventures happens to be the company that arranged both of Simonyi\u2019s space trips, as well as similar flights for six other deep-pocketed customers.<\/p>\n

The folks who fly on the Crew Dragon would spend a few days in space, under spartan conditions that would probably remind Simonyi of his own experience on the Soyuz. \u201cIt\u2019s like being in a tent,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

One big difference: SpaceX\u2019s fliers would be required to go through only a few weeks of pre-flight training, which pales in comparison with the year that Simonyi spent training with the Russians. Not that he minded taking that much time off from his duties at Intentional Software, the company he was running at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpace is one of those things you can use as an excuse,\u201d he joked. \u201cYou break all your promises. You just drop out. And it was fantastic, just in terms of my mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simonyi said he suspects that more people will go on suborbital space trips, which are priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars rather than the tens of millions of dollars it\u2019ll take to go into orbit on SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuborbital flights will be incredibly popular, I hope,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to tell. You will get [a few] minutes of really clean weightlessness, you won\u2019t get sick. \u2026 Training will be minimal, you get the view, you get a badge, and the cost is not ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orbital flight could be a different story.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many people are there who are willing to pay today\u2019s prices? And what is the net promoter score?\u201d Simonyi asked. \u201cThat remains to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governments who can\u2019t afford their own full-fledged space programs could well turn out to be the biggest buyers for commercial orbital trips.<\/p>\n

That was certainly the case back when Simonyi was in training: He noted that the Malaysian and Korean governments basically bought rides from the Russians for their astronauts in 2007 and 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s also private spaceflight,\u201d Simonyi said.<\/p>\n

Check out the Facebook video stream from the Hacker News Seattle Meetup.<\/strong><\/p>\n