Decades ago, the nation cheered for the space program with patriotic fervor. NASA was our most cherished public project; our astronauts were brave heroes, leaving the safety of Earth's orbit for the good of science and humanity. It was about aquiring new knowledge and pushing the limits of human potential.
So that's who got to travel space in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s: scientists, engineers, and some of our most daring public servants.
Here's who gets to travel to space in the 2010s: celebrities and the fame-whores who will spend millions of dollars to rub elbows with them.
Yes, three people just ponied up $4 million dollars to be on an early Virgin Galactic flight alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. People Magazine explains that "three astronauts will spend three days in training with DiCaprio in Texas and then sit next to him when they blast into the stratosphere aboard one of Sir Richard Branson's new fleet of spaceships."
Next to Leonardo DiCaprio! Typical Galactic tickets go for $200,000, but going to space is like getting into a super exclusive club now—it's that much cooler if you go with a celeb.
Sure, it was for an AIDS charity auction, and you can't blame Leo, but the whole endeavor just goes to show how much the nature of space travel has changed in recent years. As of right now, NASA can't launch its own astronauts into space; we have to pay the Russians to do it. Meanwhile, our most promising new spacecraft are privately built vessels that aim to ferry wealthy tourists above the atmosphere so they can earth-gaze alongside the star of Inception.
This wouldn't be depressing at all if our public space program were still thriving. But it's not. If you grew up in the 60s or 70s, you grew up thinking that studying science and mathematics could get you into outer space. If you're growing up now, you're growing up thinking that if you get rich, you can go to outer space. And that's the only way, really; as with most things in the near future, you have to be rich to do it.
Yes, it's increasing looking like the only thing people are going to be doing in space this next decade is either patching up the aging ISS or clinking champagne glasses on a luxury rocket with the rich and famous. The destination may be new, but thematically, we're boldly going somewhere we've gone millions of times before.
See our interview with game guru-cum-space tourist Richard Garriott, and visit his strange mansion in the first episode of Motherboard TV: