SPACE flight will never be completely safe, and commercial space flight is no exception. So it was refreshing to hear speakers at the recent Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Orlando, Florida, say they are prepared to take risks to be pioneers for science and technology.
The first contracts have already been signed for commercial space companies to ferry scientists into space (see 鈥淭ourists spark era of space science鈥�). Quizzed about safety, those scientists expressed supreme confidence 鈥� but also made it clear that they would accept unforeseen dangers that came their way to get the job done.
Space adventurers must always be willing to depart from what is tried and true so that they may explore the unknown. If we truly want to push back the frontiers of knowledge, we will always have to take risks.
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