I'm not aware of any organization that determines being "in space" by velocity -- the FAI as well as the US DoD, NASA, and the FAA all go solely by altitude.
I'm also not sure what you mean by "the way most people think about space". The first American in space, Alan Shepard, flew a suborbital mission. I don't think you'll find many people who would argue he wasn't in space.
To be clear, there is no universally-agreed upon definition of space, let alone "the edge of space". There is no official definition of space in US law or policy. The NASA, the FAA, and the Air Force definitions (100km, 100km, 50 miles respectively) are only used for the purposes of awarding astronaut wings.
Personally, I'm fine with them calling it the edge of space to get more public attention to the mission, and they can get away with it because the cameras will show black sky and the curvature of the earth.
I'm also not sure what you mean by "the way most people think about space". The first American in space, Alan Shepard, flew a suborbital mission. I don't think you'll find many people who would argue he wasn't in space.
To be clear, there is no universally-agreed upon definition of space, let alone "the edge of space". There is no official definition of space in US law or policy. The NASA, the FAA, and the Air Force definitions (100km, 100km, 50 miles respectively) are only used for the purposes of awarding astronaut wings.
Personally, I'm fine with them calling it the edge of space to get more public attention to the mission, and they can get away with it because the cameras will show black sky and the curvature of the earth.