The Near Future of Space
Beginning in 2009, Virgin Galactic will start taking tourists to space. This will be the first “affordable” option for commercial space travel (the much more expensive option being the Russian space program). The tickets will start at $200,000 per flight, and I have to say, out of my range but very affordable. What do you get for $200,000? The experience will last 2 1/2 hour with views for a 1,000 miles in any direction at a height of 360,000 feet above earth. The exciting part — for all the people who can’t spend 200k on a quick space flight– is the future. The age of commercial space tourism is here but the rest of us are going to have to wait… but (hopefully) not too long, which is very exciting… at least to me.
The following is a short animation of the experience:
