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Cirque Du Soleil Founder Becomes Latest Space Tourist For A Cause

Cirque Du Soleil founder and "I'm so rich I could go to space" mega-billionaire Guy Laliberté has—fittingly—taken off from Kazakhstan on his way to the International Space Station. Now that he's entered orbit, he's officially become the latest in a slowly increasing list of space tourists. Unlike other space tourists, though, Laliberté isn't just going for pleasure. He's bundling his trip into a broader program of environmental and anti-poverty activism.

Here's where things get a little bit dicey for us. Laliberté seems really sincere and the organization he's promoting, the One Drop Foundation that he founded, literally does the Lord's work getting water to people who don't have it. But we can see how the particular way he's chosen to highlight his cause might engender, in a certain kind of person, a potential... snideness:

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Tags: Summer-Vacations-With-An-Edge / Active Travel / Space Travel / Space Tourism / → All Tags

Summer Vacations With An Edge: Go To Mother-effing Space

If you're very rich, very bored, and have a very deep need to one-up your shark diving and sandboarding friends, space tourism company Space Adventures will train you, put you on the back of a Russian rocket, and shoot you into outer space. They've been doing it for over a decade and they've become pretty good at it, sending several tourists into orbit to the tune of over $170 million.

The company offers all kinds of packages, from a lunar mission and orbital spaceflights to zero gravity walks on the International Space Station. This is usually where we'd give you the pricing for each separate package, but after the first dozen or so million dollars we lose track. Suffice it to say that the lunar mission, which takes tourists around but not onto the surface of the moon, clocks in at a cool $100 million. No one has taken them up on the offer yet so there's still a chance for you to become the world's first private lunar explorer.

Apparently the Earthrise as seen from the dark side of the Moon is quite stunning this time of year. Or any time of year.

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Tags: Moon Landing Anniversary / Apollo 11 / Space Travel / Space Tourism / NASA / → All Tags

Follow Along With Apollo 11's Lunar Landing, 40 Years Ago Today

Forty years ago today, you could look up into the night sky at the moon and know that way up there, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were hopping around and generally making history as the first men to walk on the moon. Now that it's been four decades since that seminal moment of "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" and no one has walked on the moon since 1972, it's about time we look back and reflect on the physical and technological feats that were accomplished to bring this about.

Sure, there are tons of events this week in celebration, and Louis Vuitton threw an astronaut party last week, but the real action is at home on your computer. It's called "We Choose The Moon," and it's a flash website that effectively re-broadcasts the transmissions between Houston Command and Apollo 11 throughout their mission. Along with browsing historical photographs, the site allows you to follow along with a livestream, three Twitter accounts (@AP11_CapCom, @AP11_Spacecraft, and @AP11_Eagle), and a route map that progresses in real time with the mission as it was fourty years ago.

There's a lot of technical phrases, but also quips from the astronauts about dealing with lack of gravity and passing time in outer space, and the best part is that they're the actual transmissions! Since today is the day for the lunar landing and moonwalk, tune in or install the desktop widget to experience history all over again—we recommend forwarding it to your parents and grandparents who watched the original event on TV in 1969.

Related Stories:
· We Choose The Moon [Official Site]
· Apollo 40 Years, Event Schedule [NASA]
· Where to Celebrate The 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing [Jaunted]

[Photo: National Air and Space Museum]

Tags: Apollo 11 / Moon Landing Anniversary / Space Travel / Space Tourism / → All Tags

One Small Step for Man, Lots of 40th Anniversary Celebrations for Mankind

The 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11's Landing on the Moon will happen on Monday, July 20, 2009 but the moon landing celebrations have already begun. We rounded up a few of them for you last week and HotelChatter's got the skinny on a moon landing hotel package at the Moon Rise Hotel but there are a few more moon events you might want to check out.

Kennedy Space Center
There will be a free concert at The Kennedy Center's Concert Hall on Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are on a first-come, first-serve basis and will be extremely limited. Ticket distribution begins at 10am in the Hall of Nations until noon (or until all tickets have been given out.) But if you can snag a pair, you'll be treated to performances of Fanfare from 2001: A Space Odyseey and the theme songs from Lost in Space, Star Trek, Star Wars and E.T.

Virginia Living Museum
Folks near Newport News, Virgina can pop into the Virginia Living Museum this weekend for their "Astronaut" special at 11:30am and 12:30pm. This is a full-dome immersive experience that shows you what a rocket launch is like from inside the body of an astronaut. "Discover the perils that lurk in space as we subject ‘Chad,’ our test astronaut, to everything that space has to throw at him." Also folks from NASA Langley will be on hand to talk about sending more humans to the moon and Mars. Each show is $4 plus museum admission.

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Where to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

It was 40 years ago this month that man first stepped foot on the Moon, and celebrations around the country are reminding Americans of just how amazing the feat was. For those who need a refresher, the Apollo 11 mission took off from Cape Canaveral at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, shooting Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin (pictured) into outer space with the help of the Saturn V rocket. Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin had the singular pleasure of traipsing along the rocky lunar surface, while poor Collins orbited above.

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Tags: Travel Giveaways / Virgin Galactic / Guinness / Virgin / Space Travel / → All Tags

Guinness Giving Away a 2012 Space Trip on Virgin Galactic

The world’s most famous stout purveyors are upping the ante in travel giveaways; Guinness is celebrating the company’s 250th anniversary with a spate of special events throughout the summer, and instead of just giving away a couple of tickets to Ireland, the Dublin-based brewers are promoting their celebration by offering one lucky winner the chance to hop on board Virgin Galactic.

Guinness has reserved a $200,000 seat on Richard Branson’s private spacecraft, and one lucky drinker will be among the first astro-tourists to ride on the rocketship when it takes off in 2012. Two runners-up will receive more earthly prices—a four-day cruise aboard the Guinness Deep Sea Bar—an underwater adventure around Norway’s Lofoten Islands—and the chance to enjoy an exclusive studio performance from the Black Eyed Peas.

The catch? Well actually, they’re not saying yet. You’ll have to keep an eye on Guinness’ web site for details on how to win. Obviously, we’ll be checking for updates religiously.

Related Stories:
· Remarkable Experiences [Guinness]
· Virgin Galactic Will Depart From Spaceport Sweden in 2012 [Jaunted]
· More Galactic Fallout: More Video of Virgin's Newest Plane [Jaunted]

[Photo: Guinness]

Tags: One-way Road Trip / Rental Cars / Road Trips / Space Travel / → All Tags

Driving From Apalachicola to New Orleans...with a Lunar Lander!

Jaunted editor Paul Brady is back on terra firma in the U.S. after nearly a year away in South America. So how did he get back here? By taking the ultimate road-trip. All this week, he'll be telling us just how he did it. Any questions or suggestions? Let us know.

At nearly 400 miles, the second leg of our trip, from Apalachicola to New Orleans would clock in at more than six and a half hours, but on the upside--I thought, anyway--my girlfriend and I would get a killer breakfast from our hosts at the Coombs House Inn to start the day right. But though the sausage and apple stratta was tasty, the atmosphere in the deathly silent dining room was more chilly than a morgue in Siberia.

Eager to get on to a town with a bit more life to it, we set out for New Orleans, planning to stop for nothing but gas or bathroom breaks. But cruising past signs for the USS Alabama--presumably a battleship!--we were intrigued and decided, in true Road Trip style, to drop in. Totally. Worth. It.

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Virgin Galactic Will Depart From Spaceport Sweden in 2012

Virgin Galactic hasn’t even begun to fly yet, and they’re already quick to announce new routes. Honestly, we’re not too surprised since Richard Branson is behind the whole space tourist industry.

Besides launching from the desert of New Mexico, travelers can now choose to depart from Sweden as well. The IceHotel has announced that they’ll start packaging a quick trip into space along with accommodations at their chilly hotel. The trips will depart from Spaceport Sweden in Kiruna starting in 2012, as long as all the testing—which we assume is pretty extensive—goes well. If you’re not up to an icy hotel, there’s some other Scandinavian travel agents that have been approved to book your trip too.

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Tags: Moon Travel / Space Tourism / Space Travel / → All Tags

Perigee Moon Alert: If You're Outside Tonight, Look Up

Here's a ray of light in an otherwise dark time of year. Tonight, billions of people around the world will witness a perigee Moon, a once or twice a year phenomena that results in the biggest, brightest full Moon the lunar cycle. As the Moon men of NASA point out, a perigee Moon is as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than "lesser moons" because it's about 50,000 kilometers closer to the earth than when it's at its apogee. The result is a big, beautiful moon that casts an otherworldly glow over the earth, bright enough to "read a newspaper, ride a bike, write a letter, and at the same time count the stars overhead."

Unlike NASA, we don't actually recommend you count stars while riding your bike, but you ought to make a point of getting outside at some point tonight and looking up in the sky. Find the night setting on your digital camera and see what kind of photos you can get, as they might make a good desktop wallpaper. The weather forecast calls for snow tonight in many parts of the U.S., which might obscure the moonlight, but I'm sure plenty of people will do a double take at the sky as they stumble out of the bars, pausing for a moment to gaze at the celestial show.

[Photo: NASA]

Related Stories:
· Biggest Full Moon of the Year, Take 2 [NASA]
· Tonight's Full Moon Closest, Brightest of the Year [The Ledger-Enquirer]
· Moon Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: UFO Travel / Canada Travel / Space Travel / → All Tags

Massive Fireball Spotted Over Alberta And Saskatchewan

Hundreds of people in Western Canada Thursday night reported seeing a flaming object streak across the sky, variously describing it as green, yellow, purple and blue, brighter than a lightening strike and as loud as fireworks.

But before you get your UFO theories in order, know that aviation and astronomy experts say it was most likely a meteorite--though they can't say it was for certain. Says a professor at the University of Alberta:

What we probably saw was a fireball, which is the result of a rock coming into the atmosphere. The big question now is whether or not anything hit the ground.

While you might think a huge fireball would be easily tracked to its landing place, meteorites actually stop burning in the last few moments of their falls. That makes tracking the space rocks--if they don't burn up completely in the atmosphere--incredibly difficult: Fewer than 50 have ever been found in Canada.

Related Stories:
· Meteorite and Impacts Advisory Committee to the Canadian Space Agency [Official Site]
· Massive Fireball Lights up Night Skies in Alberta, Saskatchewan [Calgary Herald]
· ET Travel: Gillian Anderson Let Down Her Guard [Jaunted]

[Photo: Groovycandies.com]

Tags: Pipe Dreams / Public Transportation / Trains / Train Travel / Space Travel / → All Tags

Four Things We Will (Sadly) Never See

We're not too big on predictions around here, as we prefer to tell you what's actually happening, not what might be happening. So it's with a heavy heart that we're making some educated guesses and declaring that the following four things will not be on your travel radar in the coming years--and sadly could never exist:

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Tags: Space Tourism / Space Travel / Ansari X Prize / → All Tags

Beyond Ombudsmanship: Jilted Space Tourist Sues for $21 Million

This one's worth following because it could just as easily have happened to you or me. A 37-year-old Japanese businessman named Daisuke Enomoto thought he had booked the vacation of a lifetime, a 10-day visit to the International Space Station in September, 2006. Reuters points out that Enomoto paid $21 million to Virginia-based Space Adventures to make the arrangements, completed his training, and was all set to blast off in a Russian Soyuz capsule when he was bumped from the mission due to health reasons.

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