This.
en.wikipedia.org
My opinion is, if those suborbital rides can provide a affordable "taste" of the Overview effect to a large number of people - then they are worth it. Obviously, Earth orbit (and Apollo !) would be even more powerful; but considering Shatner reaction in that video, even suborbital rides may be a good start.
Remember that old Shuttle abort mode, called "AOA" ? Abort Once Around.
It was essentially an incomplete, single orbit. It lasted 1 hour and a half.
Well, SpaceX Starship "intercontinental flights" will fly the same profile. This mean that, each flight will have 200 people enjoying 30 to 45 minutes of "Overview effect".
Rinse, repeat: within the span of some years, some thousands people will have this vision engrained in their mind.
And this, folks, may change a lot of attitudes, as it already happened in the 60's.
The best-known "Earth rise / blue marble" picture is of course that of Apollo 8 on Christmas day 1968.
But there were some others, similar pictures.
One was an earlier, similar shot taken by a Lunar Orbiter robotic probe back in 1966.
Another one was a GEO Earth disk taken by a NASA satellite (can't remember which one, think it was ATS-3 prototype comsat).
All three pictures were PR hits for NASA, even if nowadays the Apollo 8 one is the best known.
![en.wikipedia.org](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F5%2F57%2FNASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise-b.jpg%2F1200px-NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise-b.jpg&hash=3d14504c12019111b778be6274405416&return_error=1)
Overview effect - Wikipedia
My opinion is, if those suborbital rides can provide a affordable "taste" of the Overview effect to a large number of people - then they are worth it. Obviously, Earth orbit (and Apollo !) would be even more powerful; but considering Shatner reaction in that video, even suborbital rides may be a good start.
Remember that old Shuttle abort mode, called "AOA" ? Abort Once Around.
It was essentially an incomplete, single orbit. It lasted 1 hour and a half.
Well, SpaceX Starship "intercontinental flights" will fly the same profile. This mean that, each flight will have 200 people enjoying 30 to 45 minutes of "Overview effect".
Rinse, repeat: within the span of some years, some thousands people will have this vision engrained in their mind.
And this, folks, may change a lot of attitudes, as it already happened in the 60's.
The best-known "Earth rise / blue marble" picture is of course that of Apollo 8 on Christmas day 1968.
But there were some others, similar pictures.
One was an earlier, similar shot taken by a Lunar Orbiter robotic probe back in 1966.
Another one was a GEO Earth disk taken by a NASA satellite (can't remember which one, think it was ATS-3 prototype comsat).
All three pictures were PR hits for NASA, even if nowadays the Apollo 8 one is the best known.