Where Can I Go To Find Out About Space Tourism?

By Author: Mitchell Schultz
Total Articles: 12
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By Mitchell J Schultz

Thinking about taking a flight to the edge of space? OK, here are your choices for the experience of a lifetime.

Only Space Adventures can book you on the Russian Soyuz Spaceship for a visit to the International Space Station (ISS). With a cost over $40 Million and limited to only one paying passenger annually. Our focus will be directed at those companies in the space tourism industry that can offer you a suborbital space thrill ride within the next few years.

The most well known company today led by Richard Branson is Virgin Galactic. By claiming the Ansari X-prize in 2004, Virgin Galactic was born. Proving that SpaceShipOne could fly man to the edge of space and back safely entered mankind into the age of civilian space flight. Thus the era of private space tourism had begun.

Attached under their White Knight mother craft, SpaceShipTwo, appropriately named 'The Enterprise', will be released at 50,000 feet and have within six passengers with two pilots. It will then fire its rockets reaching out to the edge of space and return, gliding to a horizontal landing from where ...
... they had originally taken off from.

The cost of this experience is $200,000 including training which will also give each participant the opportunity to join with others of similar passions and become a part of civilian space tourism flight history. Passengers will now experience the rockets thrusting them forward and be able to feel the G-Forces and float weightless in the cabin for several minutes as they view the Earth from the edge of space.

If you want to sit in the co-pilots seat initially next to Col. Rick Searfoss, a world famous former Nasa Shuttle Commander piloting several prior missions, then a flight on XCOR's Lynx is your next choice. The Lynx only carries one passenger at a time but can fly up to four times daily. At less than half the cost of Virgin Galactic or $95,000, this spaceplane tour will take you to the edge of space and back. Mojave, Calf is home of XCOR, Masten, Armadillo Aerospace and Scaled Composites who represent the most advanced rockets and vehicles in the world.
Again, participants within Lynx will experience G-forces, weightlessness, Earth's curvature, fly upfront in a pressurized spacesuit breathing oxygen, feeling rockets thrust them onwards as they call it 'The Ultimate Space Flight Experience' or 'The Right Stuff' from the 1960's movie of the same name about the mercury seven astronauts. This also includes pre flight training, astronaut greets and meetings with other world-wide space enthusiasts plus a DVD memento of your flight. This will also make you a part of civilian space tourism flight history.
Since only Virgin Galactic and XCOR have had limited success in the testing of their vehicles, its is much stronger than others who are mainly at the concept stages of development. However, we shall list others that are involved in the civilian space flight industry preparing their future vehicles for flight readiness. SpaceShipOne and XCOR's EZ-Rocket have both flown successfully several times. However, no other vehicle has flown comparative to these two groups as to date, which may make your choice much easier.

NOTE: SpaceShipOne is the forerunner of SpaceShipTwo as EZ-Rocket is the forerunner of Lynx. At this time no other group has been able to demonstrate their near flight readiness with the exception of SpaceX, however, their Falcon Dragon SpaceShip is only set for Orbital flights.

Others in the space tourism industry like Space Adventures, of ISS fame above, is offering its unique experience with Armadillo Aerospace. Their space craft will both take off and land vertically as seen in some of the old sci-fi flicks of the 50's and 60's. They also are priced at half of Virgin Galactic's fare at $102,000 taking three or four passengers that will also experience all the thrills of space flight as described above.

Although several other private space tourism companies, such as Starchaser, Blue Horizon, SpaceX and the Europeans that are making plans to fly civilians to space, in my opinion, at this juncture, I would keep focused on the three primary groups already mentioned above. Virgin Galactic, XCOR and Space Adventures as the most near ready and reliable choice for your future space tourism flight experience. Many other hopefuls, as RocketPlane Kisler, failed into being and as such additional vehicles may become viable in time, however, I again recommend the serious-minded space enthusiast considering taking a flight to the edge of space to review the main three groups above.

To assure themselves truly as an early space pioneer with some question as to which vehicle will begin its flights first, some avid space enthusiasts, like Per Wimmer of Denmark, has registered themselves with both Virgin Galactic and XCOR guaranteeing themselves their place in civilian space history.

For more information about space tourism please visit www.xtraordinaryadventures.com .