The First Bad-ass in Space

Space travel today is generally a much safer endeavour than it was in the sixties. Some people feel that Space agencies such as NASA are too cautious; that Space should be an explorative, risk-taking endeavour. Each mission is strictly controlled and monitored, and must have a tangible, practical objective, like delivering goods to the space station, or repairing satellites.

But it hasn’t always been this way. Once upon a time Astronauts would go up to space and pull some frankly outrageous, cowboy-esque stunts. I’d like to tell you a story about what I think is the craziest thing an Astronaut has ever done.

Kirk, Sulu and Lieutenant Laser-Fodder

Remember that scene in the Star Trek 2009 movie, where Krik, Sulu, and Red-shirt do a ‘space-jump’ from a shuttle and freefall to the planet, parachuting to safety? Well one brave Astronaut pretty much did that over 40 years ago! I’d like to tell you his story.

Here to warp speed – how will we get there?

Currently, on Earth, there are three space-faring nations. Those are The USA, Russia, and China. That means that if a human being wants to go into space they will have to go to one of those nations. Other countries may have satellite launch capabilities, but there is a huge gulf between launching a satellite and launching people aboard an actual spaceship.

Russian Soyuz spaceship

As of next year, that number will shrink to two, as the USA will retire the shuttle fleet and have no replacement. That leaves the Russian Soyuz and the Chinese Shenzhou as humankinds only option for reaching space.

So what will the USA do? The answer is, we do not know. You see, the difficulty with building a new spaceship (for humans) is that it costs money and takes time. And the time it takes is longer than any single presidential term. That means that even if a President green-lights some amazing new spaceship, it could not be completed until probably two more presidents have been and gone.

Chinese Shenzhou spaceship

So you see the problem; each president is reluctant to throw money at NASA during his term because he will probably not see the benefits during his term. In fact, over the 30 or so years that the Shuttles have been running, there have been numerous plans for some, well, really cool spaceships.

Let’s have a look at some of those spacecraft that have been proposed, worked on, and then cancelled.