We shoild stop calling tourist or commercial space flights "missions".
Title says it all. I just watched Blue Origin land a bunch of rich space tourists and it’s being called a successful “mission”. IMO trying to massage egos of the vendor and participants as having something greater than an exclusive joyride with no greater purpose than to have personal bragging rights.
mission(n.)
1590s, "a sending abroad" (as an agent)
…
General sense of "that for which one is sent or commissioned" is from 1670s; meaning "that for which a person or thing is destined" (as in man on a mission, one's mission in life) is by 1805.
Meaning "dispatch of an aircraft on a military operation" (by 1929, American English)
was extended to spacecraft flights (1962), hence, mission control "team on the ground responsible for directing a spacecraft and its crew" (1964).
High cost, high risk activities should require a non-refundable insurance purchase that can be used for cleanup should something go wrong, environmental offsets, and any other unexpected costs.
Hell, private rocket launches should have to prepay cleanup costs.
Something in the back of my mind…the Ocean Gate passengers were given clipboards with some kind of paperwork to record what they observed. Can’t remember if that was busywork or attempt to legitimize the trips.