(CNN) — When future generations write about the history of space travel, 2021 may well get its own chapter. “The year of the billionaires,” it might be called.
Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each took supersonic joy rides to the edge of space, finally bringing their competing private-sector spacecraft into operation after around two decades of promises. Celebrities such as 90-year-old “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan followed soon after. Another billionaire self-funded a historic, three-day mission aboard a SpaceX orbital capsule that flew higher than any human has traveled in decades.
And all that promises to just be the beginning.
The trio of space billionaires — Branson, Bezos and Elon Musk — have their eyes set squarely on the future. Over the past year, their visions continued to bump up against one another, stirring up plenty of controversy and one-upmanship.
Here’s a look back at some of the most memorable moments the commercial space industry had to offer in the last year.
Branson v. Bezos
Branson’s and Bezos’ space companies have for years been working to develop spacecraft capable of taking paying customers on brief, supersonic trips to the edge of space, promising to usher in an age in which booking a flight to view the Earth from space is as easy as jetting across the Atlantic. (Musk’s SpaceX, it should be noted, is not in the suborbital tourism game. Its rockets and spacecraft take much longer and more dangerous treks into Earth’s orbit.)
We’re not quite there yet. But both billionaires pledged to kick off their respective suborbital space tourism businesses by taking the rides themselves, both as a show of their confidence in their vehicles’ safety and some strategic PR.
Bezos, founder of the rocket firm Blue Origin, planned to become the first person ever to travel to space aboard a spacecraft his own company developed, setting his sights on a July 20 launch. (Blue Origin even auctioned off a ticket to ride alongside him for a whopping $28 million, though that auction winner did not ultimately fly.)
That set off an immediate wave of speculation that — although Branson has repeatedly said in interviews he doesn’t view his competition with Bezos as a “race” — there was a bitter rivalry brewing behind the scenes.
Both billionaires’ flights ended without apparent issue, with the men emerging from their respective spacecraft outfitted in custom flight suits and beaming for the cameras.
Adding to the spectacle, both flights also carried some notable crewmates for the billionaires.
Bezos was joined by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who famously trained for NASA’s Mercury program in 1961 but never went to space, and then-18-year-old Oliver Daemen, the son of a wealthy businessman. The pair became the oldest and youngest people, respectively, ever to travel to space. (Funk’s record was bested shortly after by the 90-year-old William Shatner.)
Bezos’ successful July launch catapulted the company into a busy rest of the year spent flying some high-profile figures as “honorary guests” — meaning they didn’t have to pay for tickets. Shatner took his suborbital excursion in October, a feat widely celebrated by “Star Trek” fans that was followed by an Amazon video special on the flight. Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of famed astronaut Alan Shepard, flew in December.
While Blue Origin was sending celebrities to space, Virgin Galactic faced significant delays. A report from the New Yorker revealed that warning lights had gone off in the cockpit during Branson’s flight and the space plane had traveled outside its designated airspace for 41 seconds. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights pending a review, which concluded in September and gave Virgin Galactic the all-clear. Still, the company is delaying the start of commercial services, citing unrelated technology upgrades.
Blue Origin, meanwhile, has faced its own controversies, though none that have indicated specific safety issues with its rocket or spacecraft.
Rather, a group of 21 current and former employees co-signed a letter alleging the company operates a toxic work environment where “professional dissent” is “actively stifled.” Blue Origin responded to the claims by saying it has “no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind.”
Inspiration4 flies higher
Though Musk does not have any apparent plans to join one of SpaceX’s missions, his company continued to prove its technology chops. It drastically expanded its space-based internet service, Starlink, growing the constellation to include roughly 2,000 satellites. Its Dragon spacecraft also launched and returned astronauts to and from the International Space Station this year, and it topped the billionaire space tourism competition with a historic space tourism mission of its own.
SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission, self-funded by billionaire payments platform CEO Jared Isaacman, sent Isaacman and three other people, none of whom were professional astronauts, on a three-day trip to orbit that traveled even higher than the International Space Station — higher than any human has traveled this century.
The passengers floated around the capsule, played songs, created works of art and kept in touch with ground control as their 13-foot-wide capsule whisked around the planet once about every 90 minutes, traveling at more than 17,500 miles per hour.
The mission was intended to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, a cause to which Isaacman donated $125 million and a public fundraiser fetched more than $118 million. Musk promised to donate $50 million.
The whole thing went off (almost) without a hitch.
A “disease is spreading in our world today: a malady of mistrust,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in September, adding that includes “billionaires joyriding to space while millions go hungry on earth.”
Bezos and Musk each want their own companies to be at the center of NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon this decade. But after initially planning to bring on more than one contractor to build the lunar lander for the job, NASA later said it only had enough money for one — and it went with Musk’s SpaceX. It awarded $2.9 billion to the company.
Blue Origin fought that decision all year, saying NASA unfairly favored SpaceX. Meanwhile, the PR offensives and twitter battles began.
But a federal judge delivered a major blow to Blue Origin in November by ruling in favor of NASA and SpaceX. That put the future of the Bezos-owned company’s plans to build a lunar lander into question.
The ordeal highlighted how important government contracts are to the viability of the commercial space industry. Though these companies are private, their revenue streams still rely heavily on taxpayer money.
And the battle over NASA’s moon lander contract queued up what are sure to be more high-profile battles and an interesting few years ahead, as NASA and its contractors map out a path back to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
