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Feb. 11, 2019
Boris Otter has a crazy bet: to become the second Swiss to go into space. But as a tourist. This aviation enthusiast is continuing his cosmonaut training at the Star City, near Moscow. He plans to realize his dream this year with a private company. It remains to raise 250,000 francs.
Boris Otter. Image Credit: Boris Otter
His career as a simulator pilot at Skyguide, Boris Otter is particularly fond. But his dream is much more ambitious. When he evokes it, his speed of speech accelerates: "I am convinced that 2019 will be the year of space tourism thanks to companies like Virgin Galactic. I pursued a cosmonaut training by going to Moscow's Star City for the second time to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills that would enable me to become the second Swiss in space after Claude Nicollier. "
At the age of 49, this inhabitant of Grand-Lancy demonstrated his unwavering determination to carry out his spatial ambitions: "The strong accelerations, the weightlessness, the wearing of the Sokol space suit, the rotary chair, the spatial food , the simulation of spacewalk in the hydrolab (swimming pool containing a model of a part of the International Space Station), all these formations are accessible in Russia and I was able to follow them or am on the verge of make."
Financing in progress
Only obstacle to realize this spatial dream, to find the financings. Because a flight in space, when possible - with Virgin Galactic for example - should cost around 250,000 francs.
Virgin Galactic space-plane. Image Credit: Virgin Galactic
A substantial amount that he hopes to gather in the coming months. "I have several ideas. The first would be to be sponsored by one or more luxury watch brands. The steps are underway. Otherwise, I am importing space food from Russia to introduce these atypical meals to the people of Geneva. But it requires many permissions, you have to be patient to achieve your goals. "
Iron health
Another essential condition of a journey in space, to be in good health. On this side, the Genevois is no problem: "A double medical visit is performed upon arrival at the Cité des Etoiles. The doctors in charge of allowing you, or not, to carry out your training program are the same ones that allow cosmonauts to take off for space. They control your temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, toenails, back and do not negotiate too long if your pressure is too high, it is eliminatory for certain activities! Fortunately, I passed these tests without a hitch. "
It remains to collect a quarter of a million francs and wait for the first flights of space tourists ...
Reaction of Claude Nicollier, the only Swiss to have gone into space
"I would not call it a trip into space"
Astronaut Claude Nicollier. Image Credits: NASA/ESA
"I am in favor of space tourism in general, it is a way of offering the possibility to non-professional astronauts to experience some of the extraordinary sensations of spaceflight", explains the astrophysicist Vaudois Claude Nicollier, the only Swiss to have gone into space. Who continues: "That said, space flights for tourists planned in the coming years are not real trips into space. The mission profile is to climb almost vertically with a launcher or a space plane, just to exceed 100 km altitude with about four minutes of weightlessness, then down to Earth. It is rather a crossing of the very high atmosphere and a short excursion beyond the border of space! The climb will be impressive, the view will be beautiful with black sky in daylight and clear perception of the rotundity of the Earth, and the four minutes of weightlessness will be a magnificent sensory discovery, but rather brief ... "
It remains to be seen whether the passengers of such flights will become astronauts? "I do not know, and I'm sure there will be heated discussions on this subject," says Claude Nicollier. Before saying: "For me, and with all due respect for those who will try the adventure, they will not really be astronauts in the true sense, but rather what is designated in English under the name of participating spaceflight. "
"To know how to remain humble"
What would you recommend to them? "Have fun, bring back a lot of photos (not just selfies), help promote the value of human spaceflight and share their emotions with loved ones, the public and with children! It is also important to remain humble after such an experience. The very great cosmonauts-astronauts like Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong were impressive in their humility. "
Boris Otter: bio express
An avid aeronautic enthusiast, Boris Otter began his journey to space by trying his weightless flight in Russia in 2016. A first experience of which he returned enthusiastically. It was at this moment that this 49-year-old resident of Grand-Lancy decided to go even further by enrolling in a cosmonaut training at the Cité des Etoiles north-east of Moscow in the city of shchyolkovo. A course which ended at the beginning of January of this year.
Editor note:
Indeed, Claude Nicollier rightly, we must make a difference between an astronaut (a professional who has done a professional formation and not just selected training) and a paying passenger, more than just parabolic flights and no orbital flights, an astronaut or cosmonaut (or taikonauts for the Chinese) must have made an orbital flight (minimum a complete orbit of the Earth) to claim this title.
Related article on GHI (in French): https://www.ghi.ch/le-journal/la-une/un-genevois-se-prepare-conquerir-lespace
Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: GHI/Fabio Bonavita/Giancarlo Mariani/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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