When your parents were young (and maybe even when their parents were young) the only way to get to space was to be an astronaut. Astronauts were usually members of the air force who trained for many years before they had a chance to go to space. Building spaceships was so expensive and complicated that only large and wealthy countries could afford them. Only a very few regular people were included on space shuttle flights and even they were almost all sent by their governments for specific reasons. Recently private individuals have been able to travel to the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz flights and stay there for a few days but the cost for such a trip is an astronomical $40 million!

To read the rest of this story please buy this issue of Mishpacha or sign up for a weekly subscription.