Nasa Astronaut Says Space Exploration Will Be Open to Many

More and more people are set to explore the outer space in the coming years with technology offering greater chance than in the last six decades, Nasa astronaut Scott Parazynski said Ahmedabad Thursday.

He was speaking on the topic 'Human Destiny in Space: Current & Future Prospects' at the Physical Research Laboratory Ahmedabad.

"It is a very exciting time in the history as we are going to fly many more people, both scientists as well as tourists, into the space than we did in the last six decades," said Parazynski, who has travelled into the space five times as a Nasa scientist.

"If 550 people travelled into the space in the last six decades, we can expect 5,000 people to travel there in the next decade," he said, while sharing his experiences as an astronaut who has stayed in the space for more than eight weeks and spacewalked for 47 hours.

"Imagine 5,000 people flying in the next one decade, and 50,000 in another decade. Space tourism promises short trip to the space which will become possible in the next two-three years," he said.

"Next generation of spacecraft will fly from Delhi to JFK (in the US) in six minutes...in a few decades, this is going to be a reality," he said.

"Roughly 10 years ago, a group created a carrier aircraft with spaceship and allowed them to fly with a single pilot. Now, the same technology is being applied to a larger vehicle, so in the next two-three years, many people are going to do this. While the cost is high now, if more people do this, the cost will come down," he said.