Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson will go into space later this month with his company, but people “are a bit worried” about the impact it will have on the 70-year-old, according to ANU astrophysicist and cosmologist Dr Brad Tucker.
“None of these flights, when we talk about Blue Origin and Bezos or Virgin Galactic, are going for days, to weeks, to months,” he told Sky News.
“They’re not going to get the same vigour our astronauts get on the space station, but they will have physiological changes by going up that high.”
Dr Tucker said when the flights go up past 85 kilometre up it starts to have an effect on the human body and some of these flights will encounter “up to five times the force of gravity”.
“This is one of the points that people are a bit worried about in the great space race, they’re going for the look, they’re going for the style here, what is it going to be like when you encounter this.”
