How Private Companies Changed Who Gets to Go to Space
Spaceflight used to mean government astronauts only. Here's how that's genuinely shifted.
For most of spaceflight's history, reaching orbit required being selected and trained by a national space agency. Private companies building their own crewed spacecraft have opened the door to a wider, though still very exclusive, group of people.
Who is actually going up now
Alongside professional astronauts, private missions have carried researchers conducting specific experiments, and paying passengers, on short trips that don't reach orbit as well as longer stays aboard orbital stations, a genuinely new category of spaceflight participant.
Why this doesn't mean space tourism for everyone yet
The cost of a private spaceflight seat remains far beyond what almost anyone can afford, so the actual shift so far is less "space travel for the public" and more a new, still very small, set of non-government professionals and wealthy individuals gaining access alongside astronauts.