Spaced out
Ever since Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into outer space in 1961, orbiting the Earth in 108 minutes, people have been having would-you-wouldn’t-you conversations about leaving Earth.
As we’ve moved towards a future where space tourism seems less like science fiction and more like a folly for the monied few — people’s extra-terrestrial ambitions have become more achievable. As of Nov 2023, nearly 700 people had journeyed to space over all time; of these, 69 were private astronauts from commercial space flights, all of which occurred in the past 3 years.
Down-to-earth
Even though space tourism has become more likely, the majority of Americans still aren’t showing a huge desire to leave the planet. In fact, many are less convinced than they were 5 years ago.
A Pew Research survey from July found that only 35% of all US adults said they would “definitely/probably” be interested in orbiting the Earth in a spacecraft — 7% less than in 2018, with the same trend observable across all ages and sexes.
Interestingly, American women were much less interested in outer space travel than men, with just 25% of women reporting being intrigued by the opportunity to orbit Earth, compared to 46% of men. Older cohorts were also less likely than the young to want to take on interstellar travel. Of course, it was only a century ago that people felt the same way about commercial airlines: too expensive and too scary.
