After the all-female Blue Origin spaceflight came back from launching beyond the sound barrier, a lot of people have been accusing the expedition of being a farce. A lot of people have even challenged the expedition asking, “Did they even go to space for just 11 minutes?”
Technically yes....but also no. Singer Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, former NASA rocket scientist and CEO of STEMBoard Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn and vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund Lauren Sánchez were the six lucky ladies to board the New Shepard vehicle which launched into a threshold between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space called the Kármán line on Monday (April 14).
Here is all the tea about their short but fascinating trip in five points:
Where Does Space Begin?
Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson said that, for 96 percent of the world and the United Nations, space is considered to begin 100km at the Kármán line. However, the U.S. military and NASA consider the Kármán line to rest at the 62-mile mark above Earth’s surface, per CNN.
What is The Kármán Line?
By definition, the Kármán line is the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space, according to Swiss organization Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. This line is where your typical airplane can no longer fly safely as the air thins out, per Astronomy Magazine. The name was coined by Hungarian space pioneer Theodore von Kármán who worked on designs for aircrafts during the first World War, per the magazine. He is credited for calculating the altitude where a plane could no longer be supported by aerodynamic lift.
What Qualifies as an Astronaut?
For the Federal Aviation Administration, people who fly 60 miles altitude receive their astronaut wings, per CNN. Private adventurers who flew above that altitude also received wings but are now just listed on the website instead of given physical wings as of 2021, the report says. Elon Musk’s SpaceX gifted silver wings on their own to non-government passengers who fly on the Crew Dragon.
What is the Atmosphere Like?
Each layer of the atmosphere between Earth and space blend into one another. However, if the Kármán line had to be categorized, researchers place it in the lower thermosphere. The thermosphere as a whole was found to be way higher in temperature, being able to reach 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA. However, they also say if you were to chill in that atmosphere long enough you’d get cold due to the lack of gas molecules to transfer said heat to your body.
What Happens to the Human Body Up There?
In the viral videos, we saw the six women go airborne inside the aircraft. This happened due to the cancellation of the energy produced by the rocket and capsule by earth’s gravity, giving the crew a couple of minutes of air-swim time, per CNN. At that point, the feeling is described as those butterflies in your stomach when you reach the top of a rollercoaster. The report says the Earth’s gravitational pull still tugged on the capsule.
If they’d stayed longer than 11 minutes, for a more lengthy expedition, the lack of gravity could’ve resulted in severe loss of muscle mass and bone strength, per BBC.