PJ King, a 41-year-old Irish businessman, is one of hundreds of travelers who've signed up and trained to be among the first paying passengers aboard Virgin Galactic's trips to suborbital space -- 62 miles above the Earth. King believes the $200,000 he and other passengers pay for a seat on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft will help create a new future when "flights like this are happening every week, when lots of people go, and the cost has been massively reduced due to the economics of scale." Prices are coming down, even before space tourism has started taking off. Russia charges private travelers $40 million to ride on its Soyuz spacecraft and spend a few days aboard the international space station. For a much shorter journey, Virgin Galactic wants $200,000 for a flight to suborbital space. But Space Adventures advertises suborbital trips for about half that price: $102,000. King says he knows people who've taken out mortgages to buy their spacecraft tickets.
The plunging prices are opening doors to consumers which have been all but closed for half a century to everyone except "right stuff" supermen and superwomen with names like John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride. About 360 paying passengers have signed up to be among Virgin Galactic's first travelers, CEO George Whitesides said. After the initial launches, he expects that number to grow to thousands and tens of thousands. This past year has seen important strides toward this shift. Washington licensed Jacksonville, Florida's Cecil Field as the nation's eighth non-government spaceport in January. New Mexico's Spaceport America, where Virgin Galactic plans to permanently base its space flights, completed a nearly 2-mile spacecraft runway this month.
While this sounds like a great idea, I'm pretty sure the last time they did this in America, they let a school teacher come along for the ride. Before the spaceship got into space it blew up. So is this necessarily safe.. well no. So I think the training that they're incorporating is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI personally can not wait for this to become a regular thing where people visit space everyday. Just two questions; in sub-orbital space, do you still get the whole zero gravity effect? Also how long is the trip?
ReplyDeleteMan, I can't even begin to imagine what that experience would be like. To think that this is becoming so close to being reality is crazy. This would be absolutely amazing and to have that opportunity would be incredible. The advancements we are making are truly amazing. However, there area a few concerns with this like Samantha mentioned about the safety and all.
ReplyDeletethis would definatly be the coolest thing ever. to think that one day we'll be taking trips to space is incredible. but there is also definately some things to consider.
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