NASA has selected nine student teams to launch scientific payloads on a NASA heavy-lift balloon for the 16th High-Altitude Student Platform (HASP) mission flying during the fall 2022 campaign in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

HASP, which is led by the Louisiana State University's Department for Physics, is a joint project between NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Balloon Program Office in Virginia, NASA's Science Mission Directorate, the Louisiana Space Grant Consortium in Baton Rouge, and NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas.

"HASP provides higher education students with an authentic NASA experience to build a science payload, launch it, and analyze the data," said Joyce L. Winterton, Wallops senior advisor for education and leadership development. "It encourages students to pursue STEM careers and become part of the future NASA workforce.

The Axiom-1 mission to send four private astronauts to the International Space Station is the first of many missions planned by NASA to expand the ISS for commercial use as part of what's being called the low-Earth orbit economy.

The commander of the Axiom-1 mission has emphatically stated that this is not an example of space tourism, as the crew have undergone training and the mission includes plans to conduct biomedical research.

Crew members—all men aged 52 to 71—reportedly paid a whopping US$55 million (£42.3 million) per ticket, an amount that would no doubt fund a formidable biomedical research program here on Earth. But beyond the ludicrous ticket price, I'm concerned about the potential environmental impacts of such space jaunts.