Gopi Thotakura, an accomplished Indian pilot, is stepping beyond the conventional flight paths and setting his sights on the final frontier – space. As part of Blue Origin’s New Shephard-25 (NS-25) mission, he is slated to become the inaugural Indian space tourist.
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!” – Star Trek
The first Indian to journey into space was Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, a former Indian Air Force pilot, in 1984. Now, forty years later, Gopi Thotakura is poised to follow in his footsteps, not as a professional astronaut, but as a space tourist.
Thotakura is an experienced pilot and aviator, having learned to fly prior to driving. His extensive flight experience ranges from bush and aerobatic planes to gliders and hot air balloons. He has also served as an international medical jet pilot. A lifelong adventurer, his most recent terrestrial adventure took him to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Space tourism is an exciting and rapidly growing industry, with companies such as Blue Origin leading the way. Thotakura is enthusiastic about the potential of this industry, stating:
“I can’t express my feelings right now because it is something that is not in the urban dictionary. It is something I take with me. I always tell people that right from when you are born till the time you leave, you wake up and want to see the sky, want to take a breath, but I want to have this opportunity to do the reverse, to go up there and see down here. Movies do a fantastic job but (to see) what the naked eye can see, you have to do that yourself. The whole excitement is about looking back and seeing what’s going on, without being documented or without someone else’s eye,”
He believes that the future of tourism lies in space and that efforts should be made to make it affordable and accessible for all.
Blue Origin has announced the six-person crew for its NS-25 mission, which includes Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L Hess, Carol Schaller, Gopi Thotakura, and former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight.
Image Source – thehansindia