For $200,000, you can book your own trip to space. In as little as two years, you can reach the fabled final frontier, edging yourself and humanity ever farther on the romanticized path of space exploration and the colonization of new worlds.
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, and now of Virgin Galactic plans to offer sub-orbital flights at $200,000 each starting in as little as 18 months or two years, when testing of a novel new airplane-spacecraft hybrid should be complete.
The spacecraft will calve off from a catamaran-shaped airplane at about 50,000 kilometres in altitude, then zoom up to 100,000 km, to a blue-black juncture that is Earth’s thermosphere, before flipping its wings and falling like a badminton birdie and then landing as a regular airplane. The total flight time will be 21/2 hours, with the weightless bit lasting 61/2 minutes. Virgin says it will be able to fill 12 flights a week, and has plans for an eventual hotel in space.
Stephanie Anevich, executive vice-president of Vision 2000 Travel Group and a booking agent for Virgin Galactic in Canada, underwent zero-gravity on airplanes that climb and descend to simulate weightlessness. Such training will be mandatory for those going up.
Although the zero-G flights are sometimes referred to as vomit comets, Anevich says she had a great time floating in the cabin. “Haven’t you ever wanted to fly?” she asks. Space trips should attract tourists who like to scuba dive or ski in exotic places, she added.
