When US aerospace engineer Grant Cates took part in a lottery where the prize was a seat on the first space mission for amateur astronauts, his wife had one question: what could go wrong on such a journey?
Her question made Cates think hard, because the answer was alarming. The excitement of becoming a pioneer in space travel had outweighed the consideration that an accidental collision with even a tiny piece of space junk could have disastrous consequences. Even if the spacecraft survived the collision but was unable to return to Earth, the crew would be left to die as they ran out of oxygen.
In the event, nothing so serious took place, and the Inspiration4 space mission was a big success for SpaceX. Apart from a defective toilet, the mission in the Crew Dragon space capsule was trouble-free, and four happy space tourists landed on 18 September 2021 after orbiting Earth for three days. Grant Cates didn’t win a seat, but the Inspiration4 mission was still very important to him. He was unable to forget his realisation that space lacks a rescue service to help astronauts if something other than the toilet was to fail.
“Aerospace involves lots of dangers, and the fact that there they attracted attention in the industry.
