Branson, Bezos and the definition of space.

To boldly go where no man has gone before!

- Captain James T. Kirk

This phrase is a part of the introductory speech, spoken by Captain James T. Kirk at the beginning of each episode of Star Trek-The Original Series from the 1960s. It has inspired countless individuals including Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, both of whom are big Star Trek fans. It is said that Bezos lobbied Paramount pictures for a cameo in the 2016 movie Star Trek Beyond and Amazon's Alexa was inspired by the computer onboard the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek-The Original Series. Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson also "an avowed Star Trek fan" named his 2014 rocket after the spaceship Enterprise from the show.

So what is space? Star Trek doesn't define it so we will. There is no consensus on what constitutes the boundary between airspace and 'Outer Space' internationally, but two definitions have found greater acceptance worldwide. We will be looking into these two to figure out whether the Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights count as space flights.

Federation Aeronautique Internationale / International Air Sports Federation, US Aeronautics Association

The FAI has established the Karman Line which can be between 53-62.5 miles depending on multiple factors. Taking its name after the Hungarian-American aeronautical engineer Theodore Von Karman, The term "Karman Line" or "Von Karman Line" was coined in 1957 by American Lawyer Andrew G. Haley, who was said to be the world's first practitioner of Space Law. Haley said that it is a critical jurisdictional line, marking the theoretical limit of air flight and wherever the line is drawn will be the place where "airspace" terminates. The atmosphere is a dynamic system and air density and certain other parameters like Solar flux, magnetic index fluctuates. Hence this line was originally supposed to be a range between 84 to 100 km but due to practical reasons, it was fixed to be at 100 km (62.5 miles). So now the boundary to space is set at around an altitude of 100 km for ease of use and this is considered to be the point where aeronautics ends & astronautics begin.

National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), NASA, and the U.S. Military (50 Mile Line)

The United States designates people who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (80 km) as astronauts Hence the United States Astronaut Badge is awarded to military and civilian personnel, who have completed training and performed a successful spaceflight i.e any flight above 50 miles from the surface of the earth. This was also regarded as the target altitude used by Ansari X Prize, a space competition for the first non-governmental organization to launch a reusable crewed spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. This altitude was not arbitrarily chosen and to understand it we have to go back to the origin of this Line.

This 50 Mile Line was set through testing of one of the X-Planes, North American X-15 experimental aircraft which at Mach 6.70 (7,274 km/hr) flown by William Knight at an altitude of 102,100 Feet in October 1967 still holds the official world record for the highest speed ever recorded. Although Knight could not qualify for an Astronauts Badge because none of his flights were able to cross the NACA/NASA Line. The X - 15 itself was designed for control in both the atmosphere and outer space and during testing, it was found that at around the 50-mile line the X-15 had to switch from the aerodynamic control systems to the atmospheric propulsion control system. In other words, it had to switch its control systems from aeronautics to astronautics. So In its practical application, this line too like the Karman Line effectively separates the territory of air-breathing aircraft from that of rocket propulsion space vehicles.

Branson & Bezos and the Space Flight that didn't happen.

The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Unlike the Star Trek universe's post-scarcity economic system where there are no rich or poor and billionaires don't really exist. In our universe, they do so now coming back to our Trekkie Billionaire Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos alleged space flight. Depending on which definition of space we take, If we take the FAI definition then Jeff Bezo's flight qualifies as a space flight because he crossed the altitude of 100 km which is way above the Karman Line but Richard Branson's does not because he only attained an altitude of 86 km which was short of the Karman Line. Now on the other hand, if we take the NACA/NASA/ US Military "50-mile line" definition then both Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson's flights qualify as space flights because both of them were over the 80 km altitude which according to NACA/NASA/US Military is outer space.