Entrepreneur and pilot Gopi Thotakura is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist on the NS-25 mission of Blue Origin — a company founded by Jeff Bezos, who is also the founder of Amazon.
Thotakura has been selected as one of the six crew members for the mission, whose launch date is yet to be announced. If the mission is successful, Thotakura would be the second Indian to go into space. The first one was Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew to the Salyut 7 space station on a Soviet spacecraft in 1984.
In recent years, space tourism has grown by leaps and bounds. According to media reports, in 2023, the space tourism market was valued at $848.28 million. It is expected to grow to $27,861.99 million by 2032. However, there are several challenges, such as high cost, and environmental concerns, that may limit the industry’s growth.
Here is a look at who Thotakura is, what space tourism is, and what challenges it is facing.
Who is Gopi Thotakura?
A graduate of the US-based Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Thotakura flies jets commercially, according to a press release by Blue Origin.
“Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive,” it said. He is also a co-founder of Preserve Life Corp — a global centre for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
“Gopi pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot. A lifelong traveller, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro,” the press release said.
What is space tourism?
Space tourism is essentially a section of the aviation sector which seeks to provide tourists with the opportunity to become astronauts and experience space travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes, according to the book ‘Air Transport: A Tourism Perspective’, edited by Anne Graham, Frederic Dobruszkes.
There are two main types of space tourism, sub-orbital and orbital. The sub-orbital spacecraft takes passengers just beyond the Kármán line — it lies nearly 100 kilometres above our heads and is considered to be the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. The passengers get to spend a few minutes in outer space and then come back to Earth.
The NS-25 mission, which Thotakura is a part of, is a sub-orbital mission. Thotakura and his other crew members will be taken to outer space via New Shepard, a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed specifically for space tourism by Blue Origin.
The orbital spacecraft, on the other hand, takes passengers much further than the Kármán line. Usually, passengers can spend from a couple of days to more than a week at an altitude of nearly 1.3 million feet.
In September 2021, Space X’s Falcon 9 took four passengers to an altitude of 160 km where they spent three days orbiting the Earth.
What are the challenges?
Currently, space tourism is expensive. A passenger generally has to pay at least a million dollars to reach outer space. This amount is out of reach for almost everyone.
Moreover, several studies have pointed out that space tourism may lead to environmental damage as rockets emit gaseous and solid chemicals directly into the upper atmosphere.
A 2022 study done by researchers University College London (UCL), the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that the soot emissions from rocket launches are far more effective at warming the atmosphere compared to other sources.
Safety is also a concern when it comes to space tourism. Despite high safety standards, a total of 676 people have flown into space and 19 of them have died, as of November 2023, according to a report by Astronomy Magazine. This means that approximately 3% of astronauts died during their space flight which is quite a high fatality rate.
Gopi Thotakura is an Indian expatriate entrepreneur and aviator. (Gopi Thotakura / Linkedin) 
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