Got your spaceflight booked yet with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic? They're still saying the first space tourist flights should take off next year at a cost of $200,000--or two million frequent flier points.
Initially, the suborbital space flights will blast off from the Californian desert, but if the government of South Australia has any say in it, that might change. The SA Tourist Commissioner has suggested to Branson that the vast nothingness that makes up much of the south-central Australian state would be the perfect launching pad for Virgin Galactic flights.
If Branson considers all those nasty nuclear tests that happened in the area in the 60s, he might be able to increase his profit line by not even taking off--some of that desert probably looks just like outer space already.
Who would've thought it. Boomerangs come back even when you throw them in space. We were pretty skeptical when we mentioned the Japanese guy who decided he would test boomerang throwing while he was at the International Space Station, but now we humbly bow to him. He was right!
Astronaut Takao Doi said:
"I was very surprised and moved to see that it flew the same way it does on Earth," during an experiment that his bosses were quick to say he did in his spare time.
This really does open up some opportunities for future space tourism. If boomerangs work, then that's already one bonus activity that a space resort can offer us. Now they just need to find a place where we can go snorkeling, surfing and swimming and we'll all be ready for our trip on Virgin Galactic.
It's been open for ten years, but a UK Times report has only just alerted us to the existence of the Cité de l'Espace or City of Space, a space-themed amusement park near Toulouse, France which sounds surprisingly well worth visiting.
Along with full scale models of the Mir space station and a couple of rockets, there are also heaps of different interactive exhibits that give you a better idea of how life is for astronauts in space. Children get to do astronaut training courses, you can drive a replica of an American space scooter and of course there's some suitably tasteless space food to try.
The Times reviewer also checked out the on-site restaurant, and was pleased that the French version of space had good wine, even if the food was a bit questionable. Luckily if you've had a couple of glasses of French vino, even space food tastes good.
We always thought boomerangs were kind of the province of the Australians, but the headlines are telling us otherwise this week. It seems that a Japanese astronaut who's heading up to the International Space Station in March has taken on this bit of Aussie culture for himself.
Takao Doi, the 53-year-old astronaut, has decided he's going to test out whether or not a boomerang can fly back to you in zero gravity. Two problems: everybody thinks it won't work, and he's taking a paper boomerang. Sounds a bit like grabbing a paper airplane and trying to use it to fly around the world.
We're gunning for the boomerang idea to be dropped and perhaps when the first Australian Aboriginal heads into space, they can take a real boomerang and try it out. Or we could wait until our friend Richard Branson builds a resort up there and all the tourists can start throwing boomerangs around for fun.
As if we needed any more hype for Richard Branson's new commercial space flights, the brash billionaire hosted an event at the American Museum of Natural History yesterday to unveil his new Space Ship Two. The six-passenger pod will loft astronaut wannabes to an altitude of 68 miles. The cost? "Only" $200,000 a ticket.
Of course for that price you'll get a good view of the Earth below through 18-inch windows. Flyers will also be allowed to move around the smallish cabin for part of the flight and enjoy 4.5 minutes of weightlessness.
While Virgin still has some testing to do on both the passenger pod and the mothership that will carry it into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, the company seems totally serious about actually flying people into space. The first trips could happen as early as 2009, and Branson says the cost will come down by 2014. Start saving those nickels and dimes now, kids!
Some tourists get all the luck. He just got home from the North Pole on a territory-claimingscientific mission. Now elected representative and grocery store tycoon Vladimir Gruzdev will be Russia's first space tourist.
If the rumors are true, Gruzdev will be the sixth civilian in space next September. Of course, he doesn't have to go far from home, since the Russian space agency is the only one in the world taking space tourists right now. Eat your heart out, Richard Branson.
Meet curious traveler Ibrahim Sharaf. There he is, above, chilling out on the North Pole. But that's nothing compared to where he'll be sometime in 2009: in space with Richard Branson. Sharaf will join Branson aboard Virgin Galactic's inaugural sub-orbital space flight, at a cost of $200,000. That's probably somewhere in the realm of pocket change for the Emirati businessman whose namesake company, Sharaf Group, has one of its many tentacles dipped in the tourism industry. Barring any wild stunts fueled by endless oodles of money (because that would never happen in the UAE), Sharaf should be the first Emirati in space.
Billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi has returned from the International Space Station. He touched down in Kazakhstan this weekend, and is currently sequestered in Star City, Russia, outside Moscow. His official website, Charles in Space, features plenty of video of his quaint vacation, including a welcome reception in that rarely visited part of Russia.
The blog section of his website is still lagging, though Simonyi has promised to update it with his notes once he recovers and readjusts to life on Earth. Some additional news coverage is available on YouTube. Simonyi paid about $25 million for the trip, not including those gourmet space meals prepared for him by Martha Stewart. How will the grub be on his flight home to the States? We could take a guess, if only he'd fly commercial. That, however, is unlikely.
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by amandak
