Mezonautes in Conditional Space

Abstract

In July 2021, regular flights of the Unity rocket plane and the New Shepard rocket with the First Step capsule took place. For the first time, both vehicles had passengers on board. The first of them rose to a height of about 86 kilometers, the second – "stepped" over a hundred-kilometer line. The events are long-awaited and, in a certain sense, significant. The media was quick to call the incident the beginning of the "era of space tourism". However, this name does not quite accurately reflect the essence of this phenomenon. Furthermore, it is impossible to consider the participants of these missions as cosmonauts. But, in any case, this is a new stage in technology development. The article provides brief information on the flights that took place. An attempt was made to understand the terminology issues. An assessment of the new phenomenon and its influence on the further development of aviation and cosmonautics is given.