What happens if a suborbital spaceflight suffers rapid cabin depressurization up high? It would not be pretty for the tourists inside who are not wearing space suits.
Viktor Belenko, who has died aged 76, was a senior lieutenant in the Soviet air force who made headlines in September 1976 when he landed an advanced supersonic MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor at a civilian airfield on the Japanese island of Hokkaido and was granted political asylum by the United States.
A refundable deposit in 2010 put me in line behind hundreds who had purchased suborbital space tickets before me. Thirteen years on, I still haven’t flown.