Barnstorming the Suborbital Science Frontier

By Nancy Atkinson - February 23, 2012 at 9:11 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Who will really open up the space frontier? Just like the early days of airplanes, when 'barnstormers' traveled the country selling rides to the public, commercial space companies see the market as ripe with excited people who want to hitch a ride. In this video, scientists Alan Stern and Dan Durda describe the coming era of suborbital spaceflight and how it will open up great possibilities for researchers, educators, and the public beginning, perhaps, later this year.

"In all the 50 years of human spaceflight, there have been barely 500 people who've been launched into space," says Stern. "We're talking about launching thousands if not tens of thousands of space tourists every year and then researchers."

Anyone else besides me want to hitch a ride?

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com