Six decades ago, human spaceflight was a two-sided coin, as the United States and Soviet Russia competed for primacy in the Space Race during the Cold War. With global nuclear holocaust looming menacingly on the horizon, parallel space programmes arose on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain: Mercury versus Vostok, Gemini versus Voskhod, Soyuz versus Apollo and the Space Shuttle.
Today, this East/West duopoly has ceded a few grains of its dominance to newer players. National actors like China and India have emerged like a whirlwind, along with a growing chorus of commercial entities from Boeing to SpaceX, and Blue Origin to Virgin Galactic, all hungrily eyeing the space domain.
When Yuri Gagarin conquered space in April 1961, the door creaked ajar for others to follow. But initially, those 'others' were exclusively military; for the average person in the street, the chance to fly into space was a door that was firmly barred and bolted.
Today, fewer than 700 souls - less than 0.00001 per cent of the world's 8.1 billion population - have experienced microgravity and seen Earth as it truly is: a fragile, glowing oasis of colour set jewel-like against the ethereal darkness of the cosmos.
And when that miniscule number filters down to 'ordinary' people like you and me, the odds of reaching space are vanishingly remote. We humans are a long way from becoming a spacefaring species.
Yet with new spacecraft taking shape, this status quo is on the cusp of monumental change.
Despite their decades-held duopoly, Russia and the United States have courted participation from other nations and walks of life in a highly visible example of politicised soft power. Between the 1960s and the close of the 20th century, the number of first-time space travellers quadrupled, from 45 individuals (including one woman) from two nations to 170 individuals (including 28 women) from 14 nations.
この記事は BBC Sky at Night Magazine の August 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は BBC Sky at Night Magazine の August 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Could We Find Aliens by Looking for Their Solar Panels?- Designed to reflect ultraviolet and infrared, the panels have a unique fingerprint
Researchers searching for life beyond Earth spend a lot of time thinking about what telltale signs might be detectable astronomically. Forms of unambiguous evidence for the presence of life on another world are known as biosignatures. By extension, techno signatures are indicators of activity by intelligent, civilisation-building life.
Antimatter- In our continuing series, Govert Schilling looks at antimatter, the strange counterpart to most of the matter filling our Universe
Particles and corresponding antiparticles are very much alike, except they have opposite electrical charges. For instance, the antiparticle of the electron - known as the positron - has the same tiny mass, but while electrons carry a negative electrical charge, positrons are positively charged.
Where Have All The Milky Way's Early Stars Gone?- Our Galaxy has a curious lack of pristine stars
The Big Bang produced a Universe filled almost exclusively with hydrogen and helium; all other elements - what astronomers call metals - were produced by stars, supernovae and everything that happens later. So if you can pick out a pristine star with no metals polluting it from among the billions in the Milky Way, then you are likely to have a star dating from our Galaxy's earliest days.
Inside The Sky At Night - Two years ago, exoplanet scientist Hannah Wakeford received some of the first data from the JWST
Two years ago, exoplanet scientist Hannah Wakeford received some of the first data from the JWST. In July's Sky at Night, we discovered what she's learned since then.
How to stack DSLR data in Siril
Easily combine multiple frames to boost detailin your astro photos
Lunar occultation of Saturn
You'll need to strike a balance on 21 August to capture the Moon covering the ringed planet
How to plot a variable star light curve
A rewarding project to chart stars that change brightness
Smartphone photography with a telescope
Mary Mcintyre explains how to get impressive night-sky images using your phone
Once-a-century solar storm is overdue
If a Carrington Event struck today it would be catastrophic, says Minna Palmroth
The new era of human spaceflight
There's been a step-change in crewed space missions since the dawn of the 21st century. Ben Evans charts its course and looks ahead to future horizons
