rocket travel around the world

SpaceX Starship: Those 30-Minute, Cross-Planet Flights Will Be Punishing

But on the other hand, it will also be very fast. 

SpaceX wants to send you around the world in less than half an hour — if you can stomach the speed.

The space-faring firm is currently developing the Starship , a stainless steel behemoth designed to send the first humans on a mission to Mars. Another use for the vehicle, aimed at improving its feasibility as a profit-making machine, is point-to-point trips around the Earth.

The sheer power of the rocket is enough to enable a trip from New York to Paris, which takes around seven hours 20 minutes by plane, to take just 30 minutes. But of course, the incredible speed means the firm will have to cut back on some of the creature comforts provided to regular air passengers.

“Probably needs a restraint mechanism like Disney’s Space Mountain roller coaster,” Musk warned on Twitter Thursday . “Would feel similar to Space Mountain in a lot of ways, but you’d exit on another continent.”

If you can handle it, it could drastically reshape humanity’s concepts of time and space.

The Starship on Mars.

SpaceX Starship: What It Will Be Like to Ride

Musk first detailed the predecessor to the current design, the BFR, at a special conference in September 2017. The vehicle is designed with a pressurized cabin volume of 825 cubic meters, bigger than an Airbus A380 jet plane. On a Mars trip, Musk detailed how you could fit 40 cabins in the cargo area, fitting a maximum of six or about two or three for comfort.

In total, that comes to around 120 people flying to Mars at once. Considering the A380 flies with somewhere between 407 and 615 seats depending on the airline, that makes for an impressively roomy experience. It’s ideal for a Mars voyage set to take three to six months.

Unfortunately, Earth-bound trips won’t be so comfy. Musk has instead suggested that each flight would take around 1,000 people. Every seat would be “coach” basic travel. There would be no toilets, or food area, or pilot area.

“It’s basically an ICBM traveling at Mach 25 that lands,” Musk stated on Twitter .

Because Musk estimates that each trip will take around 15 to 20 minutes, it’s arguably not necessary to offer such amenities on these short trips. But SpaceX is essentially asking people to sign up for packing themselves like sardines into a giant tin hurdling as fast as a ballistic missile.

SpaceX Starship: Earth-to-Earth Journey Times Will Be Short

For those brave enough to take the trip, here’s how long SpaceX’s website says a trip will take:

• Los Angeles to New York, which normally takes five hours 25 minutes, will take 25 minutes .
• Bangkok to Dubai, which takes six hours 25 minutes by plane, will take 27 minutes .
• Tokyo to Singapore, which can take seven hours 10 minutes, would take just 28 minutes .
• London to New York, a seven hours and 55 minutes plane ride, takes just 29 minutes .
• New York to Paris, which takes around seven hours 20 minutes by plane, would take just 30 minutes .
• Sydney to Singapore, an eight hours and 20 minutes plane ride, would take 31 minutes .
• Los Angeles to London, a journey that normally takes 10 hours and 30 minutes, would take 32 minutes .
• London to Hong Kong, a ride that normally takes 11 hours 50 minutes, would take 34 minutes .

How much would a ticket cost? Sam Dinkins, writing for the Space Review , estimated in October 2017 it would cost over $1 million to transport 853 passengers, working out to $1,200 per person.

Musk has also suggested that it could link up with the hyperloop , his design for a vacuum, sealed pod transit system moving up to 700 mph. That would mean trips from the spaceport to the city center in under 10 minutes.

Hyperloop has yet to see any public deployments, and an orbital Starship prototype isn’t expected until next year. But if SpaceX delivers on its promise to build one new Raptor engine every 12 hours by the end of this year, it could provide the 38 engines needed for each Starship in record time. That could pave the way for intercontinental travel sooner than expected.

WE ARE GOING

BACK TO THE MOON

ARTEMIS I

-  ABOUT THE MISSION  -

All eyes will be on the historic Launch Complex 39B when the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lift off for the first time from NASA's modernized Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artemis I will be the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence at the Moon for decades to come.

The primary goals for Artemis I are to demonstrate Orion’s systems in a spaceflight environment and ensure a safe re-entry, descent, splashdown, and recovery prior to the first flight with crew on Artemis II.

Mission Facts:

• Launch date: Nov. 16, 2022
• Mission duration: 25 days, 10 hours, 53 minutes
• Total distance traveled: 1.4 miIlion miles
• Re-entry speed: 24,581 mph (Mach 32)
• Splashdown: Dec. 11, 2022

Artemis Updates

Artemis I Reference Guide

The mission patch for Artemis I showcases several elements within the design that carry symbolic meaning for this historic flight including the triangular shape and the colors of silver, orange, red, white, and blue.

-  EXPLORE THE SYSTEM  -

Click on parts of the system to learn more:

Solid Rocket Boosters

Liquid Hydrogen Tank

Liquid Oxygen Tank

Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage

European Service Module

Crew Module

Launch Abort System

RL10 Engine

Orion Stage Adapter

Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter

-  FAST FACTS  -

SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM ROCKET

The most powerful rocket in the world, designed to send humans to deep space.

HEIGHT — 322 feet MASS AT LIFTOFF — 5.75 million pounds THRUST AT LIFTOFF — 8.8 million pounds PAYLOAD TO THE MOON — 59,000 pounds

ORION SPACECRAFT

Next generation spacecraft, designed for the demands of human missions to deep space.

CREW AND SERVICE MODULE HEIGHT — 26 feet PRESSURIZED VOLUME — 690.6 ft3 MASS TO THE MOON — 53,000 pounds RETURN MASS AT LANDING — 18,200 pounds

-  TAKE A 360 TOUR  -

-  GET INVOLVED  -

Get Involved

Learn how to build your own Space Launch System rocket from supplies at home, put together your own Moon kit, and more.

Join the Mission

Send Your Name

Sign up to send your name around the Moon on a flash drive that will fly aboard Artemis I and get your boarding pass.

Draw Artemis

Learn to draw a fleet of sophisticated space hardware for Artemis missions.

Start Drawing

Register for a Watch Party

Join Artemis I! Register to be a virtual participant or host a watch-party, and add-on the Artemis I STEM Learning Pathway!

-  BUILDING AND TESTING  -

Building Artemis

Every state in America has contributed to building Artemis, with companies hard at work to build the systems that will help establish a long-term human presence at the Moon. Contributions from men and women across America and in Europe are critical to the space economy, fueling new industries and technologies, supporting job growth, and furthering the demand for a highly skilled workforce.

Orion Environmental Testing

Testing at NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio confirmed the Orion spacecraft’s systems performed as designed for Artemis missions. A thermal vacuum test simulated flying in and out of sunlight and shadow in space, and an electromagnetic interference and compatibility test ensured the spacecraft’s electronics work properly when operated at the same time.

Parachute Testing in Arizona

Testing at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona included eight tests to qualify Orion’s parachute system under a variety of landing scenarios and aerodynamic conditions. Eleven parachutes will slow Orion from about 325 mph to about 20 mph in about 10 minutes as Orion descends through Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown into the ocean.

Launch Abort System Testing

Orion’s launch abort system was tested in a pad abort test from a launch pad, as well as in an ascent abort scenario to validate the system when the spacecraft faces the greatest aerodynamic forces during ascent. The system is designed to carry the crew module to safety in the event of an emergency during launch or ascent atop the SLS rocket.

Water Impact Tests

Water impact testing in the hydro impact basin at the Landing and Impact Research Facility at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provides high fidelity data of the forces that the Orion spacecraft structure and its astronaut crew would experience during a water landing after its mission around the Moon.

Orion Structural Testing

Structural testing in Denver confirmed Orion’s design is sound and the spacecraft is ready for deep-space missions. Tests ensured the spacecraft structures can withstand intense loads and vibrational forces at launch and entry, as well as the powerful pyrotechnic blasts needed for critical separation events, and even potential lightning strikes.

SLS Structural Testing

The structural testing campaign for the SLS rocket at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama verified the structures of the core stage and upper part of the rocket can survive flight. Test cases included baseline tests to simulate forces expected during flight and tests to determine the design limits and breaking point of the fuel tanks.

SLS RS-25 Engine Testing

Tests at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, confirmed the RS-25 engines can perform at the power level needed to launch the super heavy-lift SLS rocket. Tests with development engines also evaluated new parts for future engines made with advanced manufacturing techniques to increase reliability and sustainability of the engines.

SLS Booster Testing

The SLS solid rocket boosters completed test firings in a horizontal position at Northrop Grumman’s facility in in Promontory, Utah. Teams have started testing small solid rocket motors that will help the agency build next-generation solid rocket boosters for future SLS flights.

SLS Green Run Testing

Green Run testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi consisted of an eight-part test campaign to validate the integrated design of the core stage of the SLS rocket for flight. The test series culminated with all four RS-25 engines firing at the same time for more than eight minutes to simulate launch and ascent.

Verification and Validation of Mobile Launcher and Launch Pad 39B

The mobile launcher – the 380-foot-tall structure used to assemble, process and launch SLS – completed a series of tests in the Vehicle Assembly Building and at Launch Pad 39B. Testing included checks of the sound suppression system, cryogenic fuel system, and lines that provide power, environmental control, communication and more to the rocket and spacecraft.

-  FOLLOW OUR PROGRESS  -

It’s an exciting journey into the vastness of deep space. Follow along and we’ll take you there.

Artemis I News and Features

The Orion spacecraft

The Space Launch System rocket

Exploration Ground Systems

How riding rockets going 4,000 mph into suborbital space could slash international flight times from 22 hours to 2

• Rockets could fly commercial travelers from London to Sydney in just two hours. 
• This idea of point-to-point rocket travel, however, could be uncomfortable and inconvenient. 
• That said, space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Rocket Lab are exploring the possibility.

Last month, Australian-based airline Qantas announced the longest nonstop flights ever planned: 20-hour journeys from Sydney to New York or London, slated to launch in 2025. 

Just weeks later, a scientific journal claimed that before long those routes might be completed in just two hours — a tenth of the time as Qantas. 

The key to this shockingly fast travel? Rockets . 

Passengers would travel through space at super-high speeds 

In this approach, known as point-to-point rocket travel, "rockets would be used to launch a spacecraft into suborbital flight, which would then travel at speeds of up to 4,000 miles per hour," said David Doughty, CEO of Admiral Jet , a private jet and helicopter charter company. 

Large commercial jets currently fly at about 550-600 mph once they reach cruising speed. So, the rockets' speed would make a massive difference in arrival times. 

Doughty said the possibility is thrilling. 

"It could change the way we think about travel and open up new opportunities for exploration and discovery," he said. 

Space companies that are exploring the technology

While no one is going from Down Under to Big Ben in less than 24 hours these days, some space companies are already testing the technology needed for point-to-point rocket travel. 

Billionaires including Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos are in this new space race with the companies Virgin Galactic , SpaceX , and BlueOrigin . 

At the end of May, Virgin Galactic announced its fifth successful space flight and claimed that commercial flights to space — not different destinations on Earth — could start as early as this month.

Related stories

The military is also working with SpaceX, BlueOrigin, and a third company, Rocket Lab , to explore using point-to-point rocket travel for cargo transports, said Joe Cassady , an aeronautics and astronautics engineer who has worked with the US Air Force and NASA.

Roadblocks to point-to-point rocket travel 

Space companies have made significant strides in developing reusable rockets , but there's still a long way to go before they're ready for commercial flights. 

"Building the necessary launch facilities, establishing flight corridors, and coordinating with air traffic control systems would require significant investments and collaboration between space agencies and governments," Thompson said.

Then, there are safety considerations. 

"Rockets use highly volatile and explosive fuel in large quantities," Cassady said. Because of that, it's likely launch points wouldn't be convenient to major cities, but in remote locations like SpaceX's test site in Boca Chica, Texas , near the border with Mexico. 

Finally, the industry will have to consider the environmental impact , both on Earth and in space, Doughty said. 

Rocket travel could be pretty uncomfortable and expensive

During launch and landing, passengers would experience significant g-force, Cassady said. Astronauts currently feel about 3 Gs of force , which makes their body weight feel about triple what it does on the ground. 

"Because of this, seats would be contoured couches to absorb some of the load," he said. 

It's also likely that passengers would need to wear a pressurized space suit and helmet during takeoff — which would last about ten minutes — and landing, which would take about 40 minutes. But, for the 30-60 minutes when you were orbiting, you might get to try a pretty unique experience: weightlessness . 

"It is possible that you could remove your pressure suit or helmet and float freely," Cassady said. 

No company has announced projected ticket prices for point-to-point rocket trips, but if other space travel is any indication they'll likely be super expensive. Currently, you can book a two-hour space flight with Virgin Galactic for $450,000 . 

Travelers will likely need to stick to long-haul flights, at least for now

When and if ultra-high-speed rocket travel becomes available, Cassady questions how many people will clamor for seats. 

"Will there really be enough people who see the cost, risk, and potential inconvenience of having to depart and land far from their destination as worth the decrease in travel time?" he said. 

Cassady is a self-proclaimed "certified space geek" and said he would consider buying a ticket into space. But he's not planning any future point-to-point rocket flights because it's not worth the hassle. However, he is looking forward to another technology that could reduce travel times. 

"The chances are much better that quiet supersonic jet transports will be developed in the next five to 10 years and those will cut the longest flight times down enough to be reasonable," he said. 

Those flights can use existing airport infrastructure and would look more like the plane rides we're familiar with. Although, there won't be any free-floating. 

Watch: Elon Musk's multibillion-dollar Starship rocket could one day take people to the moon and Mars

• Main content

Rockets and rocket launches, explained

Get everything you need to know about the rockets that send satellites and more into orbit and beyond.

Since the invention of gunpowder in China more than seven centuries ago, humans have sent cylinders soaring into the skies with the help of controlled explosions. These craft and their engines, called rockets, have taken on many roles as fireworks, signal flares, and weapons of war.

But since the 1950s, rockets also have let us send robots, animals, and people into orbit around Earth —and even beyond.

How do rockets work?

As tempting as the logic may be, rockets don't work by “pushing against the air,” since they also function in the vacuum of space. Instead, rockets take advantage of momentum, or how much power a moving object has.

If no outside forces act on a group of objects, the group's combined momentum must stay constant over time. Imagine yourself standing on a skateboard with a basketball in your hands. If you throw the basketball in one direction, you and the skateboard will roll in the opposite direction to conserve momentum. The faster you throw the ball, the faster you roll backward.

Rockets work by expelling hot exhaust that acts in the same way as the basketball. The exhaust's gas molecules don't weigh much individually, but they exit the rocket's nozzle very fast, giving them a lot of momentum. As a result, the rocket moves in the opposite direction of the exhaust with the same total oomph.

Rockets make exhaust by burning fuel in a rocket engine. Unlike airplanes' jet engines, rockets are designed to work in space: They don't have intakes for air, and they bring along their own oxidizers, substances that play the role of oxygen in burning fuel. A rocket's fuel and oxidizer—called propellants—can be either solid or liquid. The space shuttle's side boosters used solid propellants, while many modern rockets use liquid propellants.

FREE BONUS ISSUE

What are the stages of a rocket launch.

Today's large, space-bound rockets consist of at least two stages, sections stacked in a shared cylindrical shell. Each stage has its own engines, which can vary in number. The first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has nine engines, while the first stage of Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket has two.

A rocket's first stage gets the rocket out of the lower atmosphere, sometimes with the help of extra side boosters. Because the first stage must lift the entire rocket, its cargo (or payload), and any unused fuel, it's the biggest and most powerful section.

The faster a rocket goes, the more air resistance it encounters. But the higher the rocket goes, the thinner the atmosphere gets. Combined, these two factors mean that the stress on a rocket rises and then falls during a launch, peaking at a pressure known as max q. For the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the United Launch Alliance Atlas V , max q occurs at 80 to 90 seconds after liftoff, at altitudes between seven and nine miles .

Once the first stage has done its job, the rocket drops that portion and ignites its second stage. The second stage has a lot less to transport, and it doesn't have to fight through the thick lower atmosphere, so it usually has just one engine. At this point, rockets also let go of their fairings, the pointed cap at the rocket's tip that shields what the rocket is carrying—its payload—during the launch's first phase.

Historically, most of a rocket's discarded parts were left to fall back down to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. But starting in the 1980s with NASA's space shuttle , engineers designed rocket parts that could be recovered and reused. Private companies including SpaceX and Blue Origin are even building rockets with first stages that return to Earth and land themselves. The more that a rocket's parts can be reused, the cheaper rocket launches can get.

What are the different types of rockets?

Just as automobiles come in many shapes and sizes, rockets vary depending on the jobs they do.

Sounding rockets launch high in the air on ballistic arcs, curving into space for five to 20 minutes before they crash back to Earth. They're most often used for scientific experiments that don't need a lot of time in space. For instance, NASA used a sounding rocket in September 2018 to test parachutes for future Mars missions. ( Where exactly is the edge of the space?The answer is surprisingly complex .)

You May Also Like

NASA smashed an asteroid with a rocket. The debris could hit Mars.

NASA’s most powerful rocket ever prepares for launch

Historic moon lander malfunctions after launch—but NASA isn’t panicked (yet)

Suborbital rockets such as Blue Origin's New Shepard are strong enough to temporarily enter space, either for scientific experiments or space tourism. Orbital-class rockets are powerful enough to launch objects into orbit around Earth. Depending on how big the payload is, they also can send objects beyond Earth, such as scientific probes ( or sports cars ).

Ferrying satellites to orbit or beyond requires serious power. For a satellite to remain in a circular orbit 500 miles above Earth's surface, it must be accelerated to more than 16,600 miles an hour . The Saturn V rocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted more than 300,000 pounds of payload into low-Earth orbit during the Apollo missions.

For now, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy are the world's most powerful rockets, but even bigger ones are coming. Once NASA's Space Launch System gets past its delays and cost overruns , it will be the most powerful rocket ever built. Meanwhile, SpaceX is building a test version of its Starship, the massive rocket formerly known as the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket). Russia has also announced its goal of launching a “super-heavy lift” rocket in 2028.

As some rocket makers go big, others are going small to service the growing boom in cheap-to-build satellites no bigger than refrigerators . Rocket Labs's Electron rocket can lift just a few hundred pounds into low-Earth orbit, but for the small satellites it's ferrying, that's all the power it needs.

What is a launch pad?

A launch pad is a platform from which a rocket is launched, and they're found at facilities called launch complexes or spaceports. ( Explore a map of the world's active spaceports .)

A typical launch pad consists of a pad and a launch mount, a metal structure that supports the upright rocket before it launches. Umbilical cables from the launch mount provide the rocket with power, cooling liquids, and top-up propellant before launch. The structure also helps shield the rocket from lightning strikes.

Different launch complexes have different ways of putting rockets on launch pads. At NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the space shuttle was assembled vertically and moved to the launch pad on a tank-like vehicle called a crawler. The Russian space program transports its rockets horizontally by train to the launch pad, where they're then lifted upright.

Launch pads also have features that minimize damage from the rocket's launch. When a rocket first ignites, valves lining the launch pad spray hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into the air around the exhaust, which helps lessen the rocket's deafening roar. Trenches beneath the launch pad also direct the rocket's exhaust out and away from the craft, so the flames can't rise back up and engulf the rocket itself.

Where are rockets launched?

There are many launch sites around the world, each with different pros and cons. In general, the closer a launch site is to the Equator, the more efficient it is. That's because the Equator moves faster than Earth's poles as the planet rotates, like the outer edge of a spinning record. Launch sites at higher latitudes more easily place satellites into orbits that pass over the poles.

Between 1957 and 2017, 29 spaceports sent satellites or humans into orbit. Many of the sites are still active, including the only three facilities ever to launch humans into orbit. More spaceports are on the way, both public and private. In 2018, the U.S.-New Zealand firm Rocket Labs launched satellites into orbit from its own private launchpad on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula.

Where can I see a rocket launch?

In the United States, NASA's Kennedy Space Center regularly offers access to visitors . NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia also allows launch viewing from its visitor center. The European Space Agency's spaceport in French Guiana is open to visitors , but the agency encourages travelers to plan ahead. Tourists can visit Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, the storied home of the Soviet and Russian space programs, but only by booking a tour. The facility remains closely guarded . ( See pictures of the villages near Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome, where salvaging discarded rockets is a way of life .)

If you can't visit a spaceport in person, never fear: Many public space agencies and private companies offer online livestreams of their launches .

Related Topics

• SPACE EXPLORATION

Second SpaceX megarocket launch ends with another explosion. What happens next?

U.S. returns to the moon as NASA's Odysseus successfully touches down

Humans are about to explore a metal-rich asteroid for the first time. Here's why.

Why this company sent ancient human fossils into space

Why did India land near the moon’s south pole?

• Environment
• Perpetual Planet

History & Culture

• History & Culture
• History Magazine
• Mind, Body, Wonder
• Paid Content
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your US State Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Nat Geo Home
• Attend a Live Event
• Book a Trip
• Inspire Your Kids
• Shop Nat Geo
• Visit the D.C. Museum
• Learn About Our Impact
• Support Our Mission
• Advertise With Us
• Customer Service
• Renew Subscription
• Manage Your Subscription
• Work at Nat Geo
• Sign Up for Our Newsletters
• Contribute to Protect the Planet

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

How Do We Launch Things Into Space?

Watch this video about how we launch things into space! Click here to download this video (1920x1080, 48 MB, video/mp4).

We launch satellites and spacecraft into space by putting them on rockets carrying tons of propellants. The propellants give the rocket enough energy to boost away from Earth’s surface. Because of the pull of Earth’s gravity, largest, heaviest spacecraft need the biggest rockets and the most propellent.

The GRACE Follow-On spacecraft launched into orbit in May 2018. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

How does a rocket lift off?

More than 300 years ago, a scientist named Isaac Newton laid out three basic laws that describe the way things move. One of the laws says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the most important idea behind how rockets work.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If you see pictures or videos of a launch, you’ll see exhaust streaming out the bottom of the rocket. Exhaust is the flames, hot gases and smoke that come from burning the rocket’s propellants.

The exhaust pushes out of a rocket’s engine down toward the ground. That’s the action force . In response, the rocket begins moving in the opposite direction, lifting off the ground. That’s the reaction force .

Once a rocket launches, will it keep going?

It’s not that simple. Earth’s gravity is still pulling down on the rocket. When a rocket burns propellants and pushes out exhaust, that creates an upward force called thrust . To launch, the rocket needs enough propellants so that the thrust pushing the rocket up is greater than the force of gravity pulling the rocket down.

A rocket needs to speed up to at least 17,800 miles per hour—and fly above most of the atmosphere, in a curved path around Earth. This ensures that it won’t be pulled back down to the ground. But what happens next is different, depending on where you want to go.

How to Orbit Earth:

Let’s say you want to launch a satellite that orbits Earth. The rocket will launch, and when it gets to a specific distance from Earth, it will release the satellite.

The satellite stays in orbit because it still has momentum—energy it picked up from the rocket—pulling it in one direction. Earth’s gravity pulls it in another direction. This balance between gravity and momentum keeps the satellite orbiting around Earth.

Satellites that orbit close to Earth feel a stronger tug of Earth’s gravity. To stay in orbit, they must travel faster than a satellite orbiting farther away.

The International Space Station orbits about 250 miles above the Earth and travels at a speed of about 17,150 miles per hour. Compare that to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, which help us get information to and from other NASA missions. These satellites orbit at a height of more than 22,000 miles and travel much slower—about 6,700 miles per hour—to maintain their high orbit.

How to Get to Other Planets:

If you’re trying to get to another planet, you’ll need a fast-moving rocket to overcome Earth’s gravity. To do that, you’d have to speed up to around 25,000 mph. But you’ll also need to figure out the best time to leave Earth to get to that planet.

For example, Mars and Earth reach their closest distance to each other about every two years. This is the best time to go to Mars, since it requires the least amount of propellant and time to get there. But you’ll still need to launch your rocket at the right time to make sure the spacecraft and Mars arrive at the same place at the same time.

Check out this video if you want to learn more about how to get to Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

You’ll also have to carefully plan your travels if you want to travel to the outer solar system. For instance, if you’re sending spacecraft to study Saturn, do you want to encounter Mars and Jupiter on the way there?

If you liked this, you may like:

Preparing for “Earth to Earth” space travel and a competition with supersonic airliners

Commercial spaceflight companies are preparing to enter a new market: suborbital flights from one place to another on Earth. Aiming for fast transportation for passengers and cargo, these systems are being developed by a combination of established companies, such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and new ones like Astra.

Technical and business challenges lie ahead for this new frontier, and an important piece is the coming wave of supersonic aircraft which could offer safer but slower alternatives to spaceflight. These two different approaches could face off in the 2020s to be the future of transportation on Earth.

(Lead image via Mack Crawford for NSF/L2)

Suborbital space travel

The most prevalent concept for suborbital Earth to Earth transportation comes from none other than Elon Musk and SpaceX . Primarily designed for transporting large payloads to Mars for the purpose of colonization, the next generation Starship launch system offers a bonus capability for transporting large amounts of cargo around Earth.

Musk first presented this idea in 2017, envisioning suborbital spaceflights between spaceports offshore from major cities. These launch and landing facilities would be far enough to reduce the disruption of rocket launch noise levels and sonic booms produced by landing vehicles, connected to land by a high speed form of transportation such as speedboats or a hyperloop.

Originally, these Earth to Earth flights were expected to use both stages of the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) rocket, since evolved and renamed to the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster. In 2019, Musk revealed that these suborbital flights could instead utilize only the Starship vehicle with no booster, achievable for distances of approximately 10,000 kilometers or less. In order to meet thrust requirements, a single stage suborbital Starship would include an additional two to four Raptor engines .

Given the inherent danger of rocket powered space travel, the Starship system will complete many, possibly hundreds of flights before flying passengers, with the first Earth to Earth test flights beginning as early as 2022 .

Another side effect of the Starship Mars architecture, which requires that methane be captured from Martian resources to refuel spacecraft and return to Earth, is that the same propellant production processes can be used on Earth to make Starship operations carbon neutral.

The idea of carbon neutrality, removing as much carbon from the atmosphere as is emitted by the system, is a crucial part of ensuring that future transportation systems do not contribute to the harmful effects of climate change. Musk has confirmed that carbon neutrality is an important goal of the Starship program.

SpaceX is not the only major commercial spaceflight company with a suborbital transportation concept. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic also has a vision of space travel around Earth. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon flying astronauts to Low Earth Orbit, and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flying crew on suborbital trajectories above the official American boundary of space at 80 kilometers altitude, are the only two commercial companies actively flying humans to space today. A successor to SpaceShipTwo is planned that could provide trans-continental spaceflights for passengers.

A bit of an Easter Egg from Richard Branson. Talking about a global network of spaceports, trans-continental supersonic space flights, delivering passengers anywhere on the world within a couple of hours. pic.twitter.com/WBZ6xvsfPO — Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) May 10, 2019

While no technical details of a “SpaceShipThree” have been announced by Virgin Galactic, it is fairly likely that the vehicle would be air launched, similar to the SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplanes. SpaceShipThree was originally intended to be a orbital vehicle, developed jointly by Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites.

Scaled Composites was the manufacturer of SpaceShipOne, the first private crewed spacecraft which won the Ansari X Prize by completing two crewed spaceflights using a reusable spacecraft in 2004. Scaled Composites also built the first SpaceShipTwo, the VSS Enterprise, as well as the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircrat VMS Eve, before jointly founding The Spaceship Company with Virgin Group. Scaled Composites is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman , and The Spaceship Company currently manufactures SpaceShipTwo vehicles for Virgin Galactic.

While the name SpaceShipThree has not been mentioned recently, plans for a suborbital point-to-point transportation system are still planned by Virgin Galactic. Branson has mentioned a successor to SpaceShipTwo that can provide trans-continental spaceflights as recently as 2019. No timeline for test flights or commercial operations with this system have been announced yet.

For both of these systems, it is possible that suborbital cargo transportation could precede passenger flights as a way of proving the reliability of the vehicles. One company has no intention of flying people, but is pursuing suborbital spaceflight as a cargo transportation market: the smallsat launch company Astra .

Astra Rocket 3.2 launches from Kodiak, Alaska, in December 2020 – via Astra/John Kraus

Astra recently launched their second orbital launch attempt , Rocket 3.2, which came up just short of achieving orbit for the first time in Astra’s history. The company is expected to achieve orbit with a paying customer payload on board Rocket 3.3 in 2021.

For suborbital transportation, Astra has proposed an upgrade to the Rocket 3 family, named Rocket 5. The first stage of Rocket 5 would be identical to that on Rocket 3. The second stage would be similar to the first stage, except with a single engine instead of five. The final stage of Rocket 5 would be the same as Rocket 3’s upper stage. This vehicle could be available for suborbital cargo deliveries no earlier than 2022.

The Competition: Supersonic Airliners

While multiple suborbital transportation concepts proceed through development, several supersonic aircraft designs are also expected to debut, creating competition for the market of high speed transportation around the planet.

One such entrant is Boom Supersonic, which rolled out the XB-1 prototype aircraft in November 2020. The XB-1 will reach supersonic speeds during test flights which will inform the design of a supersonic airliner named Overture. Flight tests are expected to begin in 2021 in Mojave, California. The XB-1 has three General Electric J85-15 engines, from the same family of engines which power NASA’s T-38 Talon training aircraft and powered the WhiteKnightOne carrier aircraft which air-launched SpaceShipOne.

Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 Demonstrator Aircraft – via Boom Supersonic

The Overture airliner is planned to roll out by 2025, and be operational by 2029, carrying up to 88 passengers at ranges up to approximately 7,870 kilometers. The aircraft will be powered by a to-be-determined engine provided by Rolls-Royce. Both the XB-1 test program and the Overture airliner are planned to be carbon neutral.

Orders for the Overture from both Japan Airlines and the Virgin Group have been announced. It is unclear whether the Virgin Group orders are from Virgin Galactic, who did enter a partnership with Boom on Overture in 2016, or possibly the Virgin Atlantic airline.

Despite having their own suborbital design concept, Virgin Galactic is involved in the supersonic airline effort. While their partnership with Boom has not been promoted by either company recently, Virgin Galactic unveiled a partnership with Rolls-Royce for a Mach 3 capable aircraft in August 2020. The aircraft would have a passenger capacity of up to 19 people.

Concept render of Virgin Galactic’s Mach 3 airliner – via Virgin Galactic

Another offeror in the market is Aerion Supersonic, developing their AS2 Supersonic Business Jet. Aerion recently broke ground on a new headquarters at Melbourne International Airport, just south of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Patrick Space Force Base on Florida’s space coast.

The AS2 jet is a partnership with Boeing and General Electric, and is designed to carry up to 10 passengers at speeds up to Mach 1.4 over open water. The AS2 would be flown closer to Mach 1.2 near land to mitigate the intensity of sonic booms, or subsonic if required. Historically, disturbances on the ground from sonic booms have contributed to the retirement of Aérospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation’s Concorde and the hesitation from other companies to pursue supersonic air travel.

Technical and Financial Challenges

The ideas of hypersonic suborbital space travel and subsonic atmospheric flight vary in their approaches to a similar problem, but also face some common challenges. Both methods do produce sonic booms, which can disrupt people living on the ground and, in extreme cases, cause damage or injuries. Supersonic aircraft produce sonic booms along the entire flight path, with varying intensities depending on speed, altitude, and the geometry of the aircraft. Rockets, on the other hand, only cause sonic booms to be heard during landing, as the shockwaves created during launch move upwards, away from any observers that could hear them.

In order to better understand the effects of sonic booms from aircraft, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division is developing the X-59 QueSST (Quiet Supersonic Technology) for NASA’s Low-Boom Flight Demonstration Program. The X-59 is uniquely shaped to decrease the intensity of the supersonic shockwave so as not to disturb populated areas while flying overhead.

Render of the X-59 QueSST aircraft – via NASA

Powered by a General Electric F414 engine, the same as is used in the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet, Lockheed Martin test flights are scheduled to begin in 2021, followed by delivery to NASA in 2022. The goal of the Low-Boom program is to collect data on the volume of sonic booms in order to inform legislation on approving supersonic air travel over populated areas. X-59 flights to contribute towards this mission begin in 2023, in addition to flights already underway using NASA’s F/A-18 fleet.

Sonic booms are not the only noise concern with these new methods of travel. Rockets produce potentially dangerous noise levels during launch, especially those on the scale of Starship. SpaceX plans to solve this by launching and landing far offshore from population centers, which means using a slower form of transportation to travel between the spaceport and the destination city.

Large rockets like Starship, especially if the Super Heavy booster is used, also have large blast danger areas in the event of a catastrophic anomaly while fully fueled. However, before flying commercial passengers, the Starship system will need to prove reliability comparable to that of present day airliners. This will surely include demonstrating a negligible risk of such an anomaly occurring. The Starship launch system also has no in-flight abort capability in the event that the Super Heavy booster or Starship’s Raptor propulsion system fails during flight, a risk that will need to be retired by flying many missions with only cargo on board, including both space missions and Earth to Earth test flights.

Another safety advantage winged aircraft have over propulsively landed rockets is the ability to glide in the event of an engine failure. Both these new supersonic airliners and spaceplane concepts like SpaceShipThree would be able to glide towards a controlled emergency landing during an emergency. This was recently demonstrated during Virgin Galactic’s most recent SpaceShipTwo flights, when VSS Unity glided back to the runway at Spaceport America after aborting during engine ignition . Vehicles which rely on their engines to land safely, such as Starship, do not have this contingency.

Looking past the important but solvable technical issues, the business case for faster Earth travel also remains to be proven. The costs of space launches and the limited capacity on upcoming supersonic airliners will likely mean higher ticket prices than today’s subsonic aircraft. The appeal of shorter travel times will need to outweigh the increased price.

An aspect of tourism may also come into play, as some travelers book travel not as commuters, but just to experience high speed air travel or suborbital spaceflight. However, this brings in even more competition from systems designed for suborbital space tourism, such as Blue Origin ‘s New Shepard rocket or Virgin Galactic’s own SpaceShipTwo. Orbital space tourism on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Starship vehicles may also draw customers away from the suborbital options.

Suborbital spaceflight offers faster travel times than supersonic airliners, arriving anywhere on Earth in under an hour versus a couple hours on an aircraft. But space travel also offers additional challenges for safety and for noise levels on the ground. The key to systems like Starship being successful for Earth to Earth transportation will be proving the same level of safety as an airliner. If this can be done, than a combination of spaceflight and high speed airliners may be the future of travel around humanity’s home planet.

SLS Core Stage Green Run WDR countdown ends early – Next steps considered

Long march 4c lofting of yaogan weixing-33 concludes china’s 2020 launch campaign, related articles, new solar sail technology launches on rocket lab..., launch roundup: spacex lands its 300th booster, nasa..., as ift-4 prepares for launch, starship’s future is..., as europa clipper nears october launch date, scientists..., launch roundup: spacex reaches its 40th falcon 9..., delta iv heavy launches on final mission, launch roundup: delta iv swan song, angara test..., spacex debuts new bandwagon rideshare service, ahead of total solar eclipse, scientists use spacecraft..., spacex begins 2024 with several record-breaking feats.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

The Future of Space Tourism Is Now. Well, Not Quite.

From zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps, reservations for getting off the planet — or pretending to — are skyrocketing. The prices, however, are still out of this world.

By Debra Kamin

Ilida Alvarez has dreamed of traveling to space since she was a child. But Ms. Alvarez, a legal-mediation firm owner, is afraid of flying, and she isn’t a billionaire — two facts that she was sure, until just a few weeks ago, would keep her fantasy as out of reach as the stars. She was wrong.

Ms. Alvarez, 46, and her husband, Rafael Landestoy, recently booked a flight on a 10-person pressurized capsule that — attached to a massive helium-filled balloon — will gently float to 100,000 feet while passengers sip champagne and recline in ergonomic chairs. The reservation required a $500 deposit; the flight itself will cost $50,000 and last six to 12 hours.

“I feel like it was tailor-made for the chickens like me who don’t want to get on a rocket,” said Ms. Alvarez, whose flight, organized by a company called World View , is scheduled to depart from the Grand Canyon in 2024.

Less than a year after Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson kicked off a commercial space race by blasting into the upper atmosphere within weeks of each other last summer, the global space tourism market is skyrocketing, with dozens of companies now offering reservations for everything from zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps and simulated zero-gravity flights. But don’t don your spacesuit just yet. While the financial services company UBS estimates the space travel market will be worth $3 billion by 2030, the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to approve most out-of-this-world trips, and construction has not started on the first space hotel. And while access and options — not to mention launchpads — are burgeoning, space tourism remains astronomically expensive for most.

First, what counts as space travel?

Sixty miles (about 100 kilometers) above our heads lies the Kármán line, the widely accepted aeronautical boundary of the earth’s atmosphere. It’s the boundary used by the Féderátion Aéronautique Internationale, which certifies and controls global astronautical records. But many organizations in the United States, including the F.A.A. and NASA, define everything above 50 miles to be space.

Much of the attention has been focused on a trio of billionaire-led rocket companies: Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin , whose passengers have included William Shatner; Mr. Branson’s Virgin Galactic , where tickets for a suborbital spaceflight start at $450,000; and Elon Musk’s SpaceX , which in September launched an all-civilian spaceflight, with no trained astronauts on board. Mr. Branson’s inaugural Virgin Galactic flight in 2021 reached about 53 miles, while Blue Origin flies above the 62-mile mark. Both are eclipsed by SpaceX, whose rockets charge far deeper in to the cosmos, reaching more than 120 miles above Earth.

Balloons, like those operated by World View, don’t go nearly as high. But even at their maximum altitude of 18 or 19 miles, operators say they float high enough to show travelers the curvature of the planet, and give them a chance to experience the overview effect — an intense perspective shift that many astronauts say kicks in when you view Earth from above.

Now, how to get there …

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which are both licensed for passenger space travel by the F.A.A., are open for ticket sales. (Blue Origin remains mum on pricing.) Both companies currently have hundreds or even thousands of earthlings on their wait lists for a whirl to the edge of space. SpaceX charges tens of millions of dollars for its further-reaching flights and is building a new facility in Texas that is currently under F.A.A. review.

Craig Curran is a major space enthusiast — he’s held a reserved seat on a Virgin Galactic flight since 2011 — and the owner of Deprez Travel in Rochester, N.Y. The travel agency has a special space travel arm, Galactic Experiences by Deprez , through which Mr. Curran sells everything from rocket launch tickets to astronaut training.

Sales in the space tourism space, Mr. Curran acknowledges, “are reasonably difficult to make,” and mostly come from peer-to-peer networking. “You can imagine that people who spend $450,000 to go to space probably operate in circles that are not the same as yours and mine,” he said.

Some of Mr. Curran’s most popular offerings include flights where you can experience the same stomach-dropping feeling of zero gravity that astronauts feel in space, which he arranges for clients via chartered, specialized Boeing 727s that are flown in parabolic arcs to mimic being in space. Operators including Zero G also offer the service; the cost is around $8,200.

You can almost count the number of completed space tourist launches on one hand — Blue Origin has had four; SpaceX, two. Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, on Thursday announced the launch of its commercial passenger service, previously scheduled for late 2022, was delayed until early 2023. Many of those on waiting lists are biding their time before blastoff by signing up for training. Axiom Space, which contracts with SpaceX, currently offers NASA-partnered training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Virgin Galactic, which already offers a “customized Future Astronaut Readiness program” at its Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, is also partnering with NASA to build a training program for private astronauts.

Would-be space tourists should not expect the rigor that NASA astronauts face. Training for Virgin Galactic’s three-hour trips is included in the cost of a ticket and lasts a handful of days; it includes pilot briefings and being “fitted for your bespoke Under Armour spacesuit and boots,” according to its website.

Not ready for a rocket? Balloon rides offer a less hair-raising celestial experience.

“We go to space at 12 miles an hour, which means that it’s very smooth and very gentle. You’re not rocketing away from earth,” said Jane Poynter, a co-founder and co-chief executive of Space Perspective , which is readying its own touristic balloon spaceship, Spaceship Neptune. If all goes according to plan, voyages are scheduled to begin departing from Florida in 2024, at a cost of $125,000 per person. That’s a fraction of the price tag for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, but still more than double the average annual salary of an American worker.

Neither Space Perspective nor World View has the required approval yet from the F.A.A. to operate flights.

Unique implications

Whether a capsule or a rocket is your transport, the travel insurance company battleface launched a civilian space insurance plan in late 2021, a direct response, said chief executive Sasha Gainullin, to an increase in space tourism interest and infrastructure. Benefits include accidental death and permanent disablement in space and are valid for spaceflights on operators like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, as well as on stratospheric balloon rides. They’ve had many inquiries, Mr. Gainullin said, but no purchases just yet.

“Right now it’s such high-net-worth individuals who are traveling to space, so they probably don’t need insurance,” he said. “But for quote-unquote regular travelers, I think we’ll see some takeups soon.”

And as the industry grows, so perhaps will space travel’s impact on the environment. Not only do rocket launches have immense carbon footprints, even some stratospheric balloon flights have potentially significant implications: World View’s balloons are powered by thousands of cubic meters of helium, which is a limited resource . But Ted Parson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that space travel’s environmental impact is still dwarfed by civil aviation. And because space travel is ultra-niche, he believes it’s likely to stay that way.

“Despite extensive projections, space tourism is likely to remain a tiny fraction of commercial space exploration,” he said. “It reminds me of tourism on Mt. Everest. It’s the indulgence of very rich people seeking a transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the local environmental burden is intense.”

Stay a while?

In the future, space enthusiasts insist, travelers won’t be traveling to space just for the ride. They’ll want to stay a while. Orbital Assembly Corporation, a manufacturing company whose goal is to colonize space, is currently building the world’s first space hotels — two ring-shaped properties that will orbit Earth, called Pioneer Station and Voyager Station. The company, quite optimistically, projects an opening date of 2025 for Pioneer Station, with a capacity of 28 guests. The design for the larger Voyager Station , which they say will open in 2027, promises villas and suites, as well as a gym, restaurant and bar. Both provide the ultimate luxury: simulated gravity. Axiom Space , a space infrastructure company, is currently building the world’s first private space station; plans include Philippe Starck-designed accommodations for travelers to spend the night.

Joshua Bush, chief executive of travel agency Avenue Two Travel , has sold a handful of seats on upcoming Virgin Galactic flights to customers. The market for space travel (and the sky-high prices that come with it), he believes, will evolve much like civilian air travel did.

“In the beginning of the 20th century, only very affluent people could afford to fly,” he said. “Just as we have Spirit and Southwest Airlines today, there will be some sort of equivalent of that in space travel, too. Hopefully within my lifetime.”

52 Places for a Changed World

The 2022 list highlights places around the globe where travelers can be part of the solution.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places for a Changed World for 2022.

What’s Up in Space and Astronomy

Keep track of things going on in our solar system and all around the universe..

Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other 2024 event  that’s out of this world with  our space and astronomy calendar .

Scientists may have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of dark energy, a mysterious cosmic force . That could be good news for the fate of the universe.

A new set of computer simulations, which take into account the effects of stars moving past our solar system, has effectively made it harder to predict Earth’s future and reconstruct its past.

Dante Lauretta, the planetary scientist who led the OSIRIS-REx mission to retrieve a handful of space dust , discusses his next final frontier.

A nova named T Coronae Borealis lit up the night about 80 years ago. Astronomers say it’s expected to put on another show  in the coming months.

Is Pluto a planet? And what is a planet, anyway? Test your knowledge here .

The size and shape of the world's rockets from 1957 - now

Designer Tyler Skarbek has designed a visualization of the world's different rockets. Image:  REUTERS/Steve Nesius

Omri Wallach

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Space is affecting economies, industries and global issues

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:.

• An infographic by designer Tyler Skarbek incorporates a comparison of the world's different rockets.
• It shows which country designed each rocket, what years they were used, and what they achieved.
• This piece takes a detailed look at when rockets first originated in the form of ballistic missiles, to the planned launch of the SpaceX Starship today.
• Rocket designs are expected to further develop as space exploration becomes more common.

The size of the world’s rockets, past and present

The SpaceX Starship might be the next rocket to take humans to the moon, but it won’t be the first, and likely not the last.

Starting in the mid-20th century, humanity has explored space faster than ever before. We’ve launched satellites , telescopes, space stations, and spacecrafts, all strapped to rocket-propelled launch vehicles that helped them breach our atmosphere.

This infographic from designer Tyler Skarbek stacks up the many different rockets of the world side-by-side, showing which country designed them, what years they were used, and what they (could) accomplish.

How do the world’s rockets stack up?

Before they were used for space travel, rockets were produced and developed to be used as ballistic missiles.

The first rocket to officially reach space—defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as crossing the Kármán line at 100 kilometers (62 miles) above Earth’s mean sea level—was the German-produced V-2 rocket in 1944.

But after World War II, V-2 production fell into the hands of the U.S. , the Soviet Union (USSR) , and the UK .

Over the next few decades and the unfolding of the Cold War, what started as a nuclear arms race of superior ballistic missiles turned into the Space Race. Both the U.S. and the USSR tried to be the first to achieve and master spaceflight, driving production of many new and different rockets.

To see all entries in the full interactive chart, click here .

As the Space Race wound down, the U.S. proved to be the biggest producer of different rockets. The eventual dissolution of the USSR in 1991 transferred production of Soviet rockets to Russia or Ukraine. Then later, both Europe (through the European Space Agency) and Japan ramped up rocket production as well.

More recently, new countries have since joined the race, including China , Iran , and India . Though the above infographic shows many different families of rockets, it doesn’t include all, including China’s Kuaizhou rocket and Iran’s Zuljanah and Qased rockets.

Have you read?

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} in pictures: the history of space travel, the big space clean-up - and why it matters, hubble: the space telescope that told us the age of the universe and stars, rocket range explained and continued space aspirations.

Designing a rocket that can reach far into space while carrying a heavy payload—the objects or entities being carried by a vehicle—is extremely difficult and precise. It’s not called rocket science for nothing.

When rockets are designed, they are are created with one specific range in mind that takes into account the fuel needed to travel and velocity achievable. Alternatively, they have different payload ratings depending on what’s achievable and reliable based on the target range.

• Suborbital: Reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere and comes back down. It won’t be able to complete an orbital revolution or reach escape velocity.
• LEO (Low Earth orbit): Reaches altitude of up to ~2,000 km (1242.74 miles) and orbits the Earth at an orbital period of 128 minutes or less (or 11.25 orbits per day).
• SSO (Sun-synchronous orbit): Reaches around 600–800 km above Earth in altitude but orbits at an inclination of ~98°, or nearly from pole to pole, in order to keep consistent solar time.
• GTO (Geosynchronous transfer orbit): Launches into a highly elliptical orbit which gets as close in altitude as LEO and as far away as 35,786 km (22,236 miles) above sea level.
• TLI (Trans-lunar injection): Launches on a trajectory (or accelerates from Earth orbit) to reach the Moon, an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 miles) from Earth.

But there are other ranges and orbits in the eyes of potential spacefarers . Mars for example, a lofty target in the eyes of SpaceX and billionaire founder Elon Musk, is between about 54 and 103 million km (34 and 64 million miles) from Earth at its closest approach.

The World Economic Forum was the first to draw the world’s attention to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current period of unprecedented change driven by rapid technological advances. Policies, norms and regulations have not been able to keep up with the pace of innovation, creating a growing need to fill this gap.

The Forum established the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network in 2017 to ensure that new and emerging technologies will help—not harm—humanity in the future. Headquartered in San Francisco, the network launched centres in China, India and Japan in 2018 and is rapidly establishing locally-run Affiliate Centres in many countries around the world.

The global network is working closely with partners from government, business, academia and civil society to co-design and pilot agile frameworks for governing new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) , autonomous vehicles , blockchain , data policy , digital trade , drones , internet of things (IoT) , precision medicine and environmental innovations .

Learn more about the groundbreaking work that the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network is doing to prepare us for the future.

Want to help us shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Contact us to find out how you can become a member or partner.

With space exploration becoming more common, and lucrative enough to warrant billion-dollar lawsuits over contract awards, how far will future rockets go?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:

The agenda .chakra .wef-n7bacu{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-weight:400;} weekly.

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

.chakra .wef-1dtnjt5{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;} More on Emerging Technologies .chakra .wef-17xejub{-webkit-flex:1;-ms-flex:1;flex:1;justify-self:stretch;-webkit-align-self:stretch;-ms-flex-item-align:stretch;align-self:stretch;} .chakra .wef-nr1rr4{display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;white-space:normal;vertical-align:middle;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:0.75rem;border-radius:0.25rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;line-height:1.2;-webkit-letter-spacing:1.25px;-moz-letter-spacing:1.25px;-ms-letter-spacing:1.25px;letter-spacing:1.25px;background:none;padding:0px;color:#B3B3B3;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;}@media screen and (min-width:37.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:0.875rem;}}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:1rem;}} See all

Stanford just released its annual AI Index report. Here's what it reveals

April 26, 2024

Saudi Arabia and India: A bioeconomy match made in heaven?

Alok Medikepura Anil and Uwaidh Al Harethi

Future of the internet: Why we need convergence and governance for sustained growth

Thomas Beckley and Ross Genovese

April 25, 2024

Confused about AI? Here are the podcasts you need on artificial intelligence

Robin Pomeroy

How to manage AI's energy demand — today, tomorrow and in the future

Beena Ammanath

Equitable healthcare is the industry's north star. Here's how AI can get us there

Vincenzo Ventricelli

• [ April 25, 2024 ] NASA astronauts arrive at Kennedy Space Center ahead of Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test Atlas 5
• [ April 23, 2024 ] Rocket Lab launches NASA, Korean payloads on Electron flight Electron
• [ April 23, 2024 ] SpaceX completes 300th Falcon booster landing during Starlink mission Falcon 9
• [ April 22, 2024 ] News from the Press Site: NASA explores new path for Mars Sample Return, Dragonfly mission to Titan gets green light News
• [ April 18, 2024 ] SpaceX completes 40th Falcon 9 launch of the year with Starlink mission Falcon 9

New military program to study using huge rockets for global cargo delivery

The U.S. military plans to spend nearly $48 million next year on a program that could eventually allow shipment of heavy cargo around the world in less than an hour using giant commercial rockets, such as SpaceX’s Starship vehicle, officials said Friday.

The “Rocket Cargo” program is a joint effort by the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Air Force. The Biden administration has requested $47.9 million for the program in fiscal year 2022, and officials said Friday the Pentagon plans to use the money to examine how gigantic commercial rockets could rapidly deploy military equipment around the world.

“Rocket Cargo is envisioned as a DOD interface with commercial capabilities where we deliver up to 100 tons of cargo anywhere on the planet on tactical timelines,” said Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The Air Force Research Laboratory is managing the science and technology effort to determine how large commercial rockets could give a boost to the military’s global logistics pipeline. The Space Force is looking studying how to transition the Rocket Cargo transport program to assist military commands, but officials did not provide a timetable for when such a capability might be demonstrated or operational.

“Rapid logistics underpins our ability to project power,” said Gen. Arnold Bunch, Jr., commander of Air Force Materiel Command. “That is the fundamental motivation for initiating the Rocket Cargo program.

“We see its initial applications in swiftly restoring operational capability for forces forward in austere environments as well as dramatically reducing the time required to deliver crucial humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” Bunch said in an Air Force press release.

In a press briefing Friday, military officials said they want to use new heavy-lift commercial space transportation capabilities originally designed for space exploration for point-to-point cargo deliveries on Earth.

“This idea is been around since the dawn of spaceflight,” said Greg Spanjers, program manager for the Rocket Cargo initiative and chief scientist for the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation Directorate. “It’s always been an interesting, intriguing idea.”

But transporting military cargo by rocket “never really made sense in the past,” Spanjers told reporters Friday.

“What has frankly changed is a major emergence on the commercial side, with much higher capability rockets at a much lower cost point that we’re used to seeing,” he said.

Spanjers said the Pentagon will release a solicitation “in the very near future” for companies to propose how their rockets could haul military cargo from one part of Earth to another. The Rocket Cargo program aims to use technology already being developed by private industry, instead launching a more costly, and potentially duplicative, government-led effort, officials said.

The military will assess the affordability of the Rocket Cargo concepts proposed by private industry, and examine what adaptations might be required to tailor the commercial rockets for point-to-point cargo shipments. If the capabilities still look promising, the military could eventually procure cargo transport missions through service leases, but a solicitation for an operational Rocket Cargo capability is likely years away.

“What we recognize is multiple commercial companies are talking about doing demonstrations of their rocket development in the next couple of years,” he said. “If they wish to propose back to us that we could partner up and leverage those flight opportunities to do demonstrations or tests of our own at a greatly reduced costs, we want to make sure the door is open to allow those proposals.

“No specific demonstrations are currently planned,” Spanjers said. “But we certainly do envision doing some during the course of the program.”

Reusable rockets have reduced down the cost of launches, and commercial development of super-heavy-lift launch vehicles has progressed enough to capture the military’s interest.

“The reason we’re doing it now is it looks like technology may have caught up to the good idea,” Spanjers said.

Eventually, commanders could use powerful rockets to deliver up to 100 tons of cargo — more than the weight of an M1 Abrams battle tank — to unprepared landing sites near far-flung military outposts. That would exceed the payload capacity of an Air Force C-17 cargo plane, and a rocket could do the job in a fraction of the time.

“Fundamentally, a rocket can get all the way around the planet in 90 minutes, and an airplane cannot,” Spanjers said.

“If you have a very, very large rocket, the amount of mission you can transport on one flight becomes far more attractive,” he said. “So the fact that we’re looking at rockets with 30- to 100-ton potential capacity — note that 100 tons is about the size of a C-17 load-out. So that’s when it starts getting very interesting to the DOD.”

SpaceX won a NASA contract in April to use its Starship rocket to land humans on the moon. Other companies are developing robotic cargo landers and human-rated ships to fly to the moon later this decade.

“That means these rockets have to have a capability to do an austere landing and offload cargo,” Spanjers said. “If they can land in those places, we’re interested to what extent we can extend that to a larger range of terrains so that we can do immediate cargo transports to basically anywhere on the planet quickly.”

An AFRL spokesperson said the Rocket Cargo program is not considering the use of orbital logistics depots because they come with limitations on delivery locations and timing.

“Inclination changes in space are expensive,” the spokesperson said. “A space depot would add unneeded cost and complexity. It is lower cost, less risk, and faster to simply ship directly from a CONUS (continental United States) location to the delivery site.”

A first Rocket Cargo demonstration might use a large commercial rocket for cargo transport between two established ports, according to Spanjers. An early emphasis of the program will be to look at how to quickly load and unload cargo from rockets before launch and after landing.

The Air Force and Space Force will also study air drops from rockets to deliver cargo areas where the vehicle can’t safely land.

“If the commercial side indeed builds the ability to do point-to-point cargo transport on the planet, we want to be one of the first users and early adopters of this capability,” Spanjers said. “But that means we have to take the containerization and the way we ship our cargo today that’s set up for ship, rail and air transport to make it also compatible with rocket transport.”

Rocket Cargo will become one of the Air Force’s “Vanguard” programs, in which the military invests in emerging technology to help make “game changing” concepts a reality, giving U.S. troops an edge on the battlefield.

The pace of space technology development makes this the right time to invest in rocket transport concepts, said Brig. Gen. Jason Cothern, vice commander of the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center.

“If this technology demonstration proves successful and shows that terrestrial rocket-based cargo transportation is viable and affordable and advantageous to our DOD logistics train, SMC will be responsible for transitioning this Vanguard to a Space Force program of record,” Cothern said.

“We are in a different place technology and commercial investment-wise, in a better place for this particular mission set, than we ever have been,” Cothern said.

SpaceX, led by billionaire Elon Musk, says its next-generation Starship rocket, primarily designed for crew and cargo transportation in deep space, could also ferry people and equipment on super-fast intercontinental flights around Earth.

The Starship, which has not yet flown in space, is designed to be fully reusable, and will be able to carry more than 100 metric tons of payload into low Earth orbit, more than any other rocket in the world.

During an orbital launch attempt, a reusable Super Heavy first stage booster will detach from the Starship, which fills the role of an upper stage, and come back to Earth for a vertical landing. Eventually, SpaceX wants to use catcher arms on the launch tower to capture the descending first stage, making it easier to quickly configure and refuel for another mission.

The Starship will continue into orbit and deploy its payloads or travel to its deep space destination, and finally return to Earth to be flown again.

Using a different flight profile, a rocket like the Starship could launch into space on an arcing, ballistic trajectory before re-entering the atmosphere to land at a location on the other side of the world.

But it’s not just SpaceX, according to Spanjers.

Last year, the Pentagon signed research and development agreements with SpaceX and Exploration Architecture Corporation to evaluate ideas for how to quickly move cargo around the planet using rockets. Spanjers said the new Rocket Cargo program is separate from those agreements.

“We have multiple companies that are using their own money to develop various aspects of re-entry systems that allow you to get the global reach to return the payload anywhere on the planet,” he said. “This is a bill we don’t have to pay, we just need to learn how to leverage it.”

The companies that SpaceX beat to win NASA’s first human-rated lander contract may also have something to offer, Spanjers said.

NASA considered lunar lander proposals submitted by an industry team led by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s space company, with participation from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper. Dynetics led another proposal that included contributions from Maxar, Sierra Nevada Corp., United Launch Alliance, and other companies.

“We don’t see SpaceX as being the only viable provider of this capability,” Spanjers said.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1 .

© 1999-2024 Spaceflight Now Inc

Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Elon Musk will let anyone travel around the world in half an hour using rockets

Travellers would fly in the same craft used to carry people to mars – but simply drop back down and end up in another city on earth, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox

Sign up to our free indytech newsletter, thanks for signing up to the indytech email.

Elon Musk plans to let anyone fly around the world in half an hour – using rockets.

The SpaceX CEO plans to let people jump in reusable rockets of the exact kind used to take people to space, fly them around the world, and then jumped back in again. The plan, if it works, would allow for travel far faster than even the fastest plane.

Mr Musk made the announcement as part of a presentation on his plans to go and colonise Mars. The rocket, referred to as the Big F***ing Rocket or BFR for short, will be the same basic one that carries people to the red planet, though it will presumably be kitted out differently inside.

Nasa's most stunning pictures of space

The introduction video didn't show the inside of the rocket, or many parts of the travellers' experience. Like with many of Mr Musk's announcement, it was also fairly light on details about when the journeys might actually be available.

• Elon Musk warns battle for AI supremacy will spark Third World War

Instead, it simply showed people walking along a pier to a boat. That boat then carried them to a barge where they climbed into the rocket, and were shot up and off at super speed around the world.

Mr Musk says the rocket would be able to go to most places in less than half an hour, and everywhere in less than an hour. A journey in the rocket would take 29 minutes between London and New York, or 39 minutes to travel the 7,000 miles to Shanghai, for instance.

"BFR will take you anywhere on Earth in less than 60 mins," Mr Musk wrote on Twitter. The video added that "most long-distance trips" would take less than 30 minutes.

SpaceX plans to start building the first spaceship, which Mr Musk said is the company's cheapest yet, by the middle of 2018.

The Interplanetary Transport System – the rocket's more official name – would be capable of carrying around 100 people spread out over 40 cabins, including common areas and an entertainment system.

Mr Musk also shared concept images of the spacecraft landed on Mars, next to a human settlement, saying he wanted to make the Red Planet "a nice place to be" with a sustainable human population of around one million.

Additional reporting by agencies

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

Elon Musk’s New Rocket Could Disrupt the Entire Travel Industry

By Elise Taylor

Elon Musk has always been a man with a bold plan: Hyperloops, cities on Mars. And this morning, at the 68th annual International Astronautical Congress, he introduced a new idea that may disrupt the travel industry as we know it.

It all has to do with SpaceX’s future rocket (as of now, said rocket doesn’t have a name, but it does have a code name: Big F—king Rocket). However, the BFR isn’t just for traipsing around the stratosphere—it’s for flying around Earth, too.

Well, technically, low Earth orbit. Rocket travel using the entry levels of the Earth’s atmosphere, says Musk, could get you anywhere in the world— New York to Shanghai, London to Auckland, Tokyo to Rio—in under one hour. It’s a stunning concept when we’re accustomed to these trips being multihour—and in some cases, multiday—affairs using traditional air travel.

There are just two tiny things. Okay, major things. One being the cost— Gizmodo reports that it would likely require tens of millions per launch—and the other being that the rocket doesn’t even exist yet. But Musk did show a video simulation of how it would all go down.

By Rachel Besser

By Freya Drohan

By Alexandra Macon

Passengers would travel, via sleek ship, to a disembarking point offshore where the rocket is waiting. Once the passengers are on board, it launches into low orbit, traveling at 18,000 miles per hour, only to almost instantly return to the surface of Earth and land, nose-first, halfway around the world. The cherry on top? Musk projects that the cost per seat will be “about the same as full-fare economy in an aircraft.“ As air travel seems increasingly miserable unless you’re traveling in plush first class , the idea of an affordable rocket sounds downright utopian.

For now, this travel method is just pie in the sky. But who knows what the future will hold?

Get updates on the Met Gala

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions ), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Vogue. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Middle East latest: Hamas releases hostage video; Hezbollah dismisses 'worthless' Israeli claims on commanders killed

Joe Biden has signed a $95bn security package after months of delays - including around $26bn for Israel. A US envoy has said Israel must do everything possible to avoid famine in Gaza. Listen to a Daily podcast on how the conflict is worsening Yemen's humanitarian crisis as you scroll.

Thursday 25 April 2024 01:15, UK

• Israel-Hamas war
• Hamas releases video of hostage in Gaza
• Hezbollah dismisses 'worthless' Israeli claims on commanders killed
• IDF 'poised to launch offensive' on Gaza city of Rafah
• Israel 'hits 40 Hezbollah targets' in Lebanon
• The big picture : What you need to know about the conflict in the Middle East right now
• Listen to the Sky News Daily above and  tap here  to follow wherever you get your podcasts

We'll be back tomorrow with more updates on the Israel-Hamas war.

We reported earlier that the Houthis had attacked what they said were two American ships and an Israeli vessel (see post at 8.44pm).

Now, we are receiving more information on this.

The Iran-aligned group said it targeted the US ship Maersk Yorktown, an American destroyer in the Gulf of Aden and Israeli ship MSC Veracruz in the Indian Ocean.

The spokesman Yahya Sarea said: "The Yemeni armed forces confirm they will continue to prevent Israeli navigation or any navigation heading to the ports of occupied Palestine in the Red and Arabian Seas, as well as in the Indian Ocean."

Separately, British maritime security firm Ambrey said that it was aware of an incident southwest of the port city of Aden, an area where the Houthis often target ships they say are linked to Israel or the US.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has said he expects to travel to Saudi Arabia in the next few weeks after postponing the trip due to a cracked rib.

Mr Sullivan told reporters he was feeling much better after the rib injury and that he was about 80% recovered. 

He is to discuss with Saudi officials whether a deal to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia can be reached.

By Dominic Waghorn , international affairs editor

Deep below Jerusalem, Israeli doctors are preparing for the worst.

Sky News has been given exclusive access to an underground hospital where they are expanding capacity in case the current conflict becomes much worse.

In a bunker below the Herzog Medical Centre the number of beds has been increased to 350 with 100 on the way. 

"Because it's built to withstand both biological and chemical attacks," Dr Yehezkel Caine told Sky News as we entered the complex.

"We have an airlock which is built of two separate sets of blast doors."

Beyond they have installed a whole new level of wards below the existing underground hospital, ripping out a logistics floor and installing more beds and equipment. 

The bunkers would be activated should other hospitals closer to the front need evacuating.  They are planning for worst case scenarios here like an all out war with Hezbollah.

"The hospitals in the north will be overwhelmed with casualties and they themselves will come under fire in which case they would have to evacuate their patients to the centre of the country, the same as we did in the first weeks of the war in the south," Dr Caine said.

Dr Caine and his staff know that after 7 October and the attack by Iran everything has changed for the people of Israel.

He said: "For the civilian population since the war of independence we've never been in a situation where the threat to the civilian population has been as great."

Above ground the Herzog Medical Centre continues with its peacetime specialisms.  

It has Israel's largest ventilator unit, treating adults and children, but also excels in psycho trauma treatment and geriatric rehabilitation. 

Many of those suffering PTSD from the trauma in this conflict are treated here.  

If Jerusalem itself is attacked the hospital can evacuate even the most vulnerable to the bunkers below in just a few hours. The bunkers can be entirely sealed off for 96 hours in what's called a Noah's Ark procedure. 

The Herzog drills its staff regularly, preparing for a reality its hope will never come. 

But events on the northern border are looking ominous.  

Israel has launched one of its biggest bombardments yet of Hezbollah after multiple shelling of northern Israeli communities. 

The lower level war continues with the ever present danger of escalation into something much bigger. 

If it comes, doctors in Jerusalem's biggest underground hospital say they'll be ready.

The Houthis have said they targeted an American warship destroyer in the Gulf of Aden today.

In a televised speech, the Iran-aligned group's military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the Maersk Yorktown container had also been targeted.

They also claimed they had targeted the Israeli ship MSC Veracruz in the Indian Ocean.

 The parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin have called on leaders to "get a deal done" and bring back the hostages, as they asked their son to "stay strong and survive".

In response to the video released today by Hamas of their son, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, said seeing the video of Hersh today was "overwhelming".

Mr Polin said: "We are relieved to see him alive but we are also concerned about his health and wellbeing as well as that of all the other hostages and all of those suffering in this region.

"We are here today with a plea, to all of the leaders of the parties that have been negotiating to date - that includes Qatar, Egypt, the US, Hamas and Israel.

"Be brave, lean in, seize this moment and get a deal done to reunite all of us with our loved ones and to end the suffering in this region."

Speaking directly to Hersh, his mother said: "If you can hear this, we heard your voice today for first time in 201 days and if you can hear us I am telling you, we are telling you, we love you, stay strong, survive."

The Israeli army's chief-of-staff and the head of one of Israel's intelligence agencies visited Cairo to discuss its planned ground operation in Rafah, according to the Axios news website.

Three senior Israeli officials told the outlet that Herzl Halevi and Shin Bet's director Ronen Bar met with Egyptian officials, who are concerned an operation would lead to tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians fleeing into their territory.

Egypt has repeatedly warned Israel against an operation in Rafah, with which it shares a border and where more than a million Palestinians have been displaced to.

An Israeli government spokesperson said earlier today Israel will move ahead with its planned ground operation in the city (see post at 2pm).

The US State Department has called "dangerous and reckless" the reports that Israel is pushing to legalise dozens of settler outposts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

Speaking at a daily press briefing, deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel also said Washington was continuing to press the government of Israel for more information on reports of mass graves in Gaza.

Explained: Earlier this week, reports emerged that Israel's finance minister Bezalel Smotrich was pushing to begin the process of legalising outposts in the West Bank.

Mr Smotrich sent instructions to several ministries telling them to begin preparations, the Times of Israel reported, citing Israel's Channel 12 News.

Reports have also emerged of mass graves discovered in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza. The IDF said the claim that troops buried Palestinian bodies was "baseless and unfounded".

Hamas has posted a video showing an Israeli-American hostage on its Telegram account.

The short video, which is undated, purportedly shows Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was captured by Hamas at the Nova music festival during the 7 October attacks, alive.

It shows the 23-year-old, who is from California, missing his lower arm, which was blown off during the attack.

Speaking under duress while in captivity, Mr Goldberg-Polin says he is in "underground hell" and without the treatment he has needed.

"Benjamin Netanyahu and his government should be ashamed of yourselves because you neglected us along with thousands of other citizens," he says, urging the Israeli prime minister to resign after "rejecting" deals to release the hostages.

Every day the hostages are in Gaza they are ignored "more and more", he says.

"You ignore our blood... Do what is expected of you and bring us home immediately, or has this become too big for you?"

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has released footage of plumes of smoke rising into the air after a house was reportedly shelled.

The shelling took place in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza.

After weeks of relative calm, Israel intensified its attacks overnight on Monday, focusing on areas - particularly in the north - from where it had previously withdrawn troops.

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

A Guide to Around-the-World Flights

E mbarking on a yearlong journey around the world is a dream scenario for many travelers. However, the logistics of making it happen can be challenging, not least because of the sheer number of flights you would need to book. One way to make the journey a reality is by purchasing an around-the-world flight ticket.

Here are the basics of what you need to know about around-the-world flights, including which airlines and companies offer them and tips for navigating this travel option.

What is an around-the-world ticket?

An around-the-world (often referred to as RTW for "round the world") ticket allows travelers to hopscotch across the globe and visit multiple destinations on one ticket, usually at a lower cost than individually bought tickets. RTW trips typically need to be in a continuous forward direction, either eastward or westward; for example, an eastward itinerary could include flights from New York to Buenos Aires to Barcelona to Berlin to New Delhi to Bali to Honolulu to New York again.

With RTW tickets, changes are typically allowed, so extending or shortening your stay at each destination doesn't cost extra. Travelers either choose their own unique itinerary or follow one of the sample itineraries provided.

Which airlines offer around-the-world tickets?

Around-the-world tickets are typically offered by airline alliance networks and travel agencies-not by single airlines. Both Oneworld Alliance and Star Alliance offer around-the-world flights, but SkyTeam (which includes Delta Air Lines, Air France, and KLM) no longer has an around-the-world program . The rules around the tickets vary based on the provider.

Oneworld Alliance around-the-world tickets

The Oneworld Alliance (which includes U.S. carriers Alaska Airlines and American Airlines as well as international carriers British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qatar, and seven others) offers travelers two options for RTW tickets , including:

• Oneworld Explorer, which sets prices based on the number of continents you visit
• Global Explorer, which bases the fee on the distance traveled

There are a few restrictions for each. For one, trips must start and end in the same city within 12 months. Also, travelers need to visit at least three continents and cross both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans in no more than 16 flights, without backtracking (meaning you need to continue in the same direction of travel).

Oneworld RTW prices for itineraries starting stateside begin at roughly $3,500 for an economy ticket to three continents. However, that price climbs to about $7,000 for travelers planning to visit six continents. Those seeking to travel in business or first class should expect rates to start at more than $10,000.

Star Alliance around-the-world tickets

There are few places you can't get to on a Star Alliance RTW ticket -the network reaches more than 1,300 destinations in 190 countries. It includes 26 airlines, some of which are United, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, and Air New Zealand.

Travelers have two options when booking: to pick their destinations or to select one of Star Alliance's themed RTW tickets. The themed itinerary Architecture Hotspots Round the World , for example, starts in Athens, from where you fly to Cairo, Beijing, Miami, Chicago, Brasilia (Brazil), Barcelona, and Florence and then return to Athens.

Like Oneworld, Star Alliance RTW tickets demand travelers make both a transpacific and transatlantic flight in no more than 16 flights, flown within one year. However, Star Alliance doesn't require fliers to start and end at the same airport. They just need to get back to the same country-so users could feasibly start in San Francisco and wrap up in New York if they're running short on allotted miles (the maximum allowed for the entire journey is 39,000). Additionally, each stop must last at least 24 hours.

For Star Alliance, prices are determined by total mileage flown and class of service. On the low end, expect to pay about $4,000.

Other companies that offer around-the-world tickets

If you'd rather not use one of the airline alliances, another option is to consult a travel agency that specializes in around-the-world tickets.

One of the oldest is AirTreks, which has been assembling RTW tickets for travelers since 1987.

Because AirTreks works with multiple airline alliances (including SkyTeam, even though it no longer sells RTW tickets), it can offer greater ticket flexibility, often at a lower price. It also provides overland options from one airport to another (meaning you could fly into London, take the train to France, and fly out of Paris), whereas Oneworld and Star Alliances require travelers to fly in and out of the same airports.

One sample itinerary titled the Off The Beaten Path starts in Los Angeles and has you fly to Melbourne and Catania, Italy, where you travel overland to Palermo to catch forward flights to Porto, Portugal; Florianópolis, Brazil; Medellín, Colombia; and Los Angeles. The price starts at $3,000, which is slightly cheaper than booking a similar trip with one of the airline alliances.

AirTreks doesn't have mileage or segment restrictions, so it allows travelers to embark on and conclude their journey wherever they choose. However, because flights are spread across multiple alliances, tickets can be subject to change fees.

Other companies you might consider include Trailfinders , Flight Centre , and RoundAbout Travel .

Can you pay for an around-the-world ticket using miles?

Yes, it's possible to fund your around-the-world ticket with select airline miles. However, you're going to need a treasure trove of loyalty points to make it happen, and you'll be tasked with finding flights with award availability for each flight segment, which can be challenging.

Some of the mileage programs that currently offer RTW tickets are Aeromexico, Air Canada, ANA, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Singapore Airlines.

Are around-the-world tickets worth it?

It depends.

There are some distinct advantages to booking a RTW ticket; chief among them is some built-in flexibility and a set price. Because the price is determined by the number of places you visit, it can be cheaper for travelers who are keen on flying during more expensive peak-travel periods, such as summer, versus during the offseason.

However, some travelers may find it easier to book individual tickets as they go rather than the whole itinerary upfront-especially if work, family, or other obligations may make it hard to use all the provided flights in a single year while adhering to the RTW-ticket conditions (namely, consistently flying in a single direction). Booking outside of an airline alliance also allows you to mix and match a greater number of airlines. Similarly, going the DIY route allows travelers to use a combination of points and cash.