Who ACTUALLY Gets to be Called an Astronaut?

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Launchpad Newsletter
April 30, 2024

Your Comprehensive Guide to the New Space Economy

G. Pettit here, 

Welcome to the Launchpad Newsletter, your top source for political, economic, and social developments in the New Space Economy, built by real entrepreneurs shaping it.

Ready-for-launch into the insights of the most impactful industry of the 21st Century.

This Week’s Next-Gen Newsflash

🚀 After years of delays, Boeing Starliner capsule has arrived at its launchpad for final preparations on its first crewed flight

🛰️ NASA’s ambitious Mars Sample Return calls for public proposals to dig itself out of an $11 billion dollar hole

🌙 New Space Race, New Red Scare: U.S military officials sound the alarm of China’s increasing presence in space

Today’s Subject of Space: The New Blue Crew

In the wake of Blue Origin’s latest New Shepard crew announcement, the growth of commercial astronautics continues. And that fact raises some thoughts about the future of the field.

Approximately 644 people have officially reached the altitude of space, depending on the definition being used. A number sure to rise. As a former employee of Blue Origin, which engages not only in commercial aerospace manufacturing but also space tourism, my colleagues and I played an active part in pushing that envelope, among other companies, and subsequently reframing what it means to be an astronaut.

The title has grown more flexible over the past decade, with the rise of and increased awareness concerning commercial astronauts, citizen astronauts, analog astronauts, and even those confident enough to call themselves "future astronauts."

Semantics at play. Some may take the opinion that those who have been to space at all have earned those wings. Others may believe that calling oneself an astronaut without authorized employment and training is no different than calling oneself a Navy SEAL for visiting the local firing range every weekend.

Regardless, the meaning has without question become blurred in this new era of spaceflight. There will be a point in the future when the title may lose all meaning as we presently know it, if enough people are actively living and working in space. An unintended consequence of the goal of off-world expansion.

What does it mean to be an astronaut? To have the right stuff? Hard to say, as the term grows across a spectrum. Of course, there will always be astronauts by profession, but as humanity extends deeper into space for a wider breadth of reasons, expect colorful new variations to grace your news feed.

But no matter the definition, it's reasonable to assume that more people contributing to human spaceflight progress, technology, and awareness, is a good thing. No other way to get off this rock, after all.

State of the New Space Economy

  • The global space economy grew by 8% in 2023, to $546 billion, with no sign of slowing down. Who says there’s no money to be made in aerospace?

  • 2023 brought multiple high-profile market exits of promising space companies, and 2024 will likely stick the trend as high interest rates and reluctant investors squeeze the cost of capital required to compete.

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