Fun article, and also yeah, even without intellectualizing it, it doesn't "feel" like space. They've just been on a very high altitude flight. Honestly even going up on the ISS feels borderline. You're still in Earth's atmosphere (a tiny bit) and very much subject to its gravity (if it didn't go as fast as it does, it would plummet to Earth in short order). Going by the article's metaphor, it's the "Holiday Inn and Burger King" metric of visiting a place. I think you'd need to fly to another planet/moon to really qualify as a true Space Person.
It definitely flunks the “feel” test. The whole thing was shorter than a Saturday morning cartoon episode. Idc what line they crossed, that ain’t space.
Counterpoint: they didn’t go to space.
https://defector.com/at-what-point-has-one-actually-been-to-space
Fun article, and also yeah, even without intellectualizing it, it doesn't "feel" like space. They've just been on a very high altitude flight. Honestly even going up on the ISS feels borderline. You're still in Earth's atmosphere (a tiny bit) and very much subject to its gravity (if it didn't go as fast as it does, it would plummet to Earth in short order). Going by the article's metaphor, it's the "Holiday Inn and Burger King" metric of visiting a place. I think you'd need to fly to another planet/moon to really qualify as a true Space Person.
It definitely flunks the “feel” test. The whole thing was shorter than a Saturday morning cartoon episode. Idc what line they crossed, that ain’t space.