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He arrived in Texas, tried on his flight suit for the first time, and is now preparing to live out his childhood dream.<\/p>\n On Sunday, French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron will board a Blue Origin rocket and blast off into space, joining the select group of humans who have ventured beyond Earth’s bounds.<\/p>\n “I never thought I’d get to do this,” the 52-year-old, who hails from the mountainous southeastern region of Savoy, told AFP in an interview two days before his adventure.<\/p>\n “We’re going to be astronauts for 15 minutes, so a bit like pretend astronauts, but astronauts nonetheless!”<\/p>\n Blue Origin’s spaceflights are brief hops just beyond the edge of space and back again\u2014but still allow passengers to admire the curve of the Earth while free floating during a few minutes of weightlessness.<\/p>\n In all, the Jeff Bezos-owned enterprise has flown 31 humans to space on its New Shepard suborbital rocket system.<\/p>\n Sunday’s mission, the first with crew after a two-year pause, will see six people soar beyond the Karman Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level.<\/p>\n “This morning, I put on my flight suit for the first time\u2014my wife found me very handsome as an astronaut,” Chiron joked on the phone, as he prepared for a day of training including a flight simulator.<\/p>\n What is he most looking forward to?<\/p>\n “Seeing the Earth from space,” he replied. “This feeling of leaving the world of men and seeing the Earth as a whole, from above, without borders, in all its fragility and beauty.”<\/p>\n It’s an exceedingly rare opportunity. Only 10 French space agency astronauts have ever gone to space. In 2023, French-Italian Ketty Maisonrouge flew to space with Virgin Galactic, a competitor of Blue Origin.<\/p>\n Expensive, but not crazy expensive<\/b><\/p>\n Prices for these ultra-coveted tickets are a well-guarded company secret.<\/p>\n “Yes, it’s expensive” but “not completely crazy either,” said Chiron. “There are some who would buy a pretty red car with this money.”<\/p>\n This thrill-seeker believes that the check he wrote was only a part of the reason he was selected.<\/p>\n “They received thousands of applications, from people much wealthier than me,” he said, and believes it was his lifelong passion for space that set him apart.<\/p>\n And he wants to become “an inspiration for young people” to follow their dreams and never give up\u2014foremost his two children, aged 14 and 15.<\/p>\n Not to mention, “Dad’s going up in a rocket!” has a cool ring to it, he laughed.<\/p>\n Determined in his youth to become an astronaut, Chiron obtained his private pilot’s license at 16, then attended a summer program hosted by an American military academy for further flying lessons.<\/p>\n While in Florida, he couldn’t pass up the chance to watch launches of the iconic space shuttle.<\/p>\n “It was pretty incredible,” he recalls. “Not only were we flying, but we had the shuttle right there” on its launch pad, to admire.<\/p>\n Eventually he shifted his focus toward business studies, at Temple University in Philadelphia, and in Japan.<\/p>\n He also did military service and\u2014true to his Alpine roots\u2014was a ski instructor for French Air Force and NATO pilots.<\/p>\n About 25 years ago, he founded Brasserie du Mont-Blanc, now a major French craft brewery. He has since sold the company and is now working on a distillery project.<\/p>\n Aware of the criticism surrounding the emerging private space flight sector, he makes it clear he’s not at all a fan of the term “space tourism.”<\/p>\n Tourism is “taking a leisurely cruise and sipping a pina colada,” said Chiron.<\/p>\n “This is still an adventure which is not completely risk-free.”<\/p>\n In fact, he added, these early commercial flights contribute to the broader goal of space development.<\/p>\n “There are a lot of technological advances that have come about thanks to space research,” insisted the entrepreneur, recalling how the Apollo program was a catalyst for the modern computing industry.<\/p>\n “The indirect benefits are not necessarily obvious, but they are enormous.”<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u00a9 2024 AFP\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCitation<\/strong>: \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no![\"French](\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2024\/french-entrepreneur-sy-1.jpg\" "\\"French")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t‘Dad’s going up in a rocket!’ French businessman set for launch (2024, May 18)
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