Screw The Mile High Club - I Am Joining The Kármán Line High Club (62 Miles Up And The Boundary Of The Atmosphere & Space)

After  

NASA 

grounded the  

Space Shuttle 

you probably thought we were losing interest in 

Space Exploration. 

I'm happy to say, 

it is the 

American Way 

of doing business which will keep us flying into 

Space 

for years to come. 

Private Enterprise. 

Of course, 

NASA 

and all the different 

Government Space Agencies 

around the World are not going away, 

but more 

and more World collaboration between 

Space Agencies 

will help stem the cost for all Nations.

Then with private businesses, 

like Jeff Bezos' 

Blue Origin, 

Elon Musk's 

SpaceX, 

and Richard Branson's 

Virgin Galactic,

they will gladly sell us a seat for a quick ride across the Globe so we can say,

"I flew in outer space!"

And I am sure it will not be cheap.

So,

here are five missions, 

to keep us entertained, 

slated for this year.

Juno Spacecraft — After five years of travel, the Juno spacecraft will finally reach the fifth planet in our solar system. NASA expects Juno to reach and land on Jupiter by July 4. Juno will stay on the gas giant for 20 months, studying the planet's atmosphere, magnetic field and gravitational field. The Juno spacecraft was created by NASA's New Frontiers program and is a cousin of the New Horizons probe that flew by Pluto last summer.

OSIRIS REx — NASA is not only looking to explore planets; it also wants to study asteroids. On Sept. 8, the space agency will launch its OSIRIS REx spacecraft, which will land on the asteroid 1999 RQ36 in 2018. Once OSIRIS has reached the targeted asteroid, it will collect some samples and map the surface of the space rock. NASA expects the spacecraft to return to Earth by 2023. This will mark the first time asteroid samples are carried back home via a probe.

Crew Dragon Capsule — SpaceX's "space taxi" is ready for in-flight abort testing. The company, created by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, will test the capsule in December. The Crew Dragon will eventually carry NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. SpaceX already successfully demonstrated the abort system works, but it also wants to ensure that passengers will be completely safe when aboard.

Falcon Heavy — Prior to the Dragon Crew tests, SpaceX will test flight its Falcon Heavy rocket in September. This is the first time the agency is launching the massive vehicle, which is essentially three Falcon 9 rockets combined. SpaceX eventually wants to use this rocket to take people to the moon and Mars. CEO Elon Musk has been testing the spacecraft's since 2011, but he's certain it'll take flight this year.

ExoMars — The European Space Agency will be the first to launch this year with the ExoMars mission on March 14, which will consist of sending three exoplanetary spacecraft to Mars in hopes of finding traces of alien life. The ExoMars spacecraft will also test out new technologies on the Red Planet that could be used for future space exploration. The ESA partnered with Russia's ROSCOSMOS to make the mission possible. The first spacecraft to launch will be the Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli EDM, which are expected to land in October. The first will study the atmosphere and the second will test technologies on land. The third rover will land sometime in 2018.

Looks like we are in for an exciting year of 

Space Exploration.

And,

thanks to 

Sir Richard Branson,

we will finally be sending a  

Virgin 

into outer space.

This is,

Thinking Better Of Making Jokes About Sir Richard - "Virgin Galactic Will Be Testing Sub-Orbital Vehicles All Year To Be Able To Take Humans To The Edge Of Space" - Or He Might Not Let Me Be A Passenger One Day - And I Do Believe We Need Virgins In Outer Space,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“If life is a bowl of cherries, how many virgins does it take to fill it?”

- Josh Stern -

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

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