travelwriter

     Hey Mr. Spaceman - I was hesitant when my former editor suggested this assignment.  Write about space travel? Are you kidding?  Visions of Captain Kirk and Darth Vader ran through my head.   And I guess that’s why he never published this article. 

     Who would want to fly into orbit?  Certainly not me because I get motion sickness just driving to the mall.  Reportedly, Virgin Galactic (yes, of the Virgin Atlantic Richard Branson fame) has collected $13 million dollars and signed up 178 people for their regular space flights set to begin in 2009.  Their goal is to launch a total of 30,000 passengers into space by the year 2015.                                                              

     For a mere $200,000 US and one weeks training, yes, you too can soar off on a suborbital flight onboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip2 and enjoy 5 minutes of weightlessness and the blackness of space.  But I guess that’s a bargain compared to the cool $20 million US that Dennis Tito paid the Russian space program in 2001 to be the first private space tourist.  Although, his orbital flight got him a complete 10 day excursion including a visit to the International Space Station over 400 kilometers from Earth.    

When Charles Lindbergh made his historic non-stop flight from
New York to
Paris in May of 1927, his incentive was the Raymond Orteig prize of $25,000.  The latest rush to space was prompted by the privately funded X-PRIZE foundation.  Their $10 million dollar prize was awarded to Mojave Aerospace in October 2004 when they flew the world’s first private spacecraft to over 100 km above the Earth’s surface twice in two weeks.  Talk about incentive. 

     But it’s all not just for the money and adventure.  According to the X-PRIZE foundation, “A tiny fraction of the abundant solar energy that flows past the Earth could provide all of our planet’s power needs without greenhouse gasses or nuclear residue-forever.”  Now that’s an interesting thought.     

According to my former editor, “These ideas are what stir imagination…that you’ll fly into sub orbit, see the curvature of the Earth , the blackness of space and the weightlessness, and land on the other side of the Earth to your business or vacation destination …”  For more information on these truly exciting ideas (yes, I must admit I have been converted to the excitement), check out www.spacedadventures.com and www.virgingalactic.com.  Oh, and for those of us who don’t quite have the disposable income, you can go on a virtual space trip to Mars and beyond at www.spacewander.com

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