Kirby Ikin: Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants CEO ahead of the all-female Blue Origin NS-31 launch

It's a big week for space enthusiasts and pop fans, as an all-female crew gears up for the Blue Origin NS-31 launch set to take place in a matter of hours.

Katy Perry and TV host Gayle King will join four others on the first all-women expedition in 60 years - rocketing 100 kilometres above Earth tomorrow.

They'll cross the internationally recognised space boundary - and float for four minutes.

It's part of a mission to balance out the 90 percent of men dominating space expeditions.

Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants CEO Kirby Ikin says most of this crew have paid for the experience.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever, du see, we have hit the age of space
travel where it's not just professional astronauts and the billionaires
and stuff going into space, but it's also Katy Perry.
Katy Perry's going along with Gail King and four other
women and they're going to go up in a in
a Blue Origin rocket in just a few hours. And
it's the first all women's space flight in more than
sixty years, which apparently is quite significant. Kirby Ken is

(00:21):
the chair of the National Space Society Australia and with us.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey Kirby, Hi, welcome, Thank you for having you on.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah, thanks for joining us. Why are we sending Katie
Perry to space? What's the value in that?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I believe it is her wanting to go rather than
being sent, so to speak. I think they're all sort
of passengers who are choosing to have an experience.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Are they paying?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Most of them? Are? As I understand it.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh, okay, well that makes a lot more sense. I
thought we've picked this one and so we're sending it.
I thought maybe it's for some publicity, but I suppose
it probably does that as well. Are you are you
really actually can you say that you're up in space?
Like you've done us space trip if you've only been
up there for.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Ten minutes, it's a very good question. There's also the
definition of what is space now technically, and this is
somewhat arbitrary. That accepted definition is above one hundred kilometers. Yeah,
and the Blue Origin capsules do actually go above that level,
but it's what's called a suborbital trip. You're not actually

(01:24):
in orbit and going all the way around the Earth,
which is what would be orbiting. And that's slightly different
to the virgin galactic experience, which doesn't quite make it
to one hundred kilometers. So it's a little bit of pickiness,
but it is technically in space.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Could you ever been up there? You've been to space?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
No? I might wish, but no, only in my imagination.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Would you like to go?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I would like to go, but I am probably somewhat
risk averse in the sense that I would like to
have seen many many flights before I would choose to
do that myself.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, And if you so were in our flights and
then you were prepared to go up, how much would
you pay?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Another interesting question when all of these space tourism companies
and I say, or there's been some that have come
and gone, but the two main ones are the Origin
and Virgion Galactic. They were charging initial people who were
signing up something in the region of two hundred and
fifty thousand US dollars. That has, I believe, gone up,

(02:26):
but the intent is that it will ultimately come down
as more and more people fly and the vehicles become
more reliable and they're more of them.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Realistically, where does a bottom out at, Like, what are
we going to pay when normal punters like us go up?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I would venture to say they're hoping to get down
to maybe something in the fifty to one hundred thousand
dollars range being reasonable, But I guess you could equate
it to maybe an expensive cruise equivalent something like that,
But I think that's going to be quite a few
years away.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, quite an expensive cruise and a very short one. Kirby,
Thanks very much appreciated. Kirby. Iic in National Space Society Australia.
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