WASHINGTON: Thrill-seekers may soon be able to get their adrenaline kick — and envy-inducing Instagram snaps — off the limit, as space tourism finally takes off.
You’ll just need a little patience. And a lot of money.
Here’s where things stand.
Two companies are offering short “suborbital” hops of a few minutes: Jeff Bezos’ blue original and Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket takes off vertically and the crew capsule separates and crosses the Karman Line (62 miles, or 100 kilometers, in altitude) before falling back to Earth with three parachutes.
Virgin Galactic uses a giant carrier aircraft, which takes off from a horizontal runway and then drops the rocket-propelled spacecraft. It climbs to more than 50 miles in altitude before gliding back in turn.
In both cases, six passengers are able to experience a few minutes of weightlessness from their seats and a view of Earth from space.
Virgin Galactic has said that regular commercial flights will begin in 2022, followed by two more test flights. Their waiting list is already long, 600 tickets have been sold so far.
But the company estimates it will eventually run 400 flights per year. Two seats on one of the first flights to receive in a prize draw are: registrations open until 1 September.
For Blue Origin, no detailed calendar has been announced.
“We are planning two more flights this year, then targeting several more flights in 2022,” a spokesman told AFP.
Another way to go to space is through reality television. space hero, an upcoming show, says it plans to send the winner of a contest International Space Station (ISS) in 2023.
The first tickets sold by Virgin Galactic went for between $200,000 and $250,000 each, but the company has warned that future sales will cost more.
Blue Origin hasn’t announced prices. The unnamed winner of the public auction paid $28 million for a seat on the first crewed flight, but decided to postpone his trip.
It is not known what amount was bid for the seat secured by Dutch teenager Oliver Damen, who will fly in place of the auction winner.
The more “budget conscious” might consider spending $125,000 for a seat space neptune: a capsule that provides 360-degree windows and is raised into the upper atmosphere by a balloon the size of a football stadium.
Despite the promise of spectacular views, the balloon only soars 19 miles—far from the limits of space, and weightlessness.
All 300 seats for 2024 are sold out, but reservations are open for 2025.
No — you are only expected to be in reasonable shape. Virgin Galactic’s training lasts only five days.
Blue Origin promises to teach you everything you need to know “a day before launch,” and its first crewed flight includes pioneer aviator Wally Funk, the oldest spacewalker at age 82. become a passenger.
The company’s requirements included being able to climb seven flights of stairs within 90 seconds (the height of the launch tower) and being between 5’0″ and 110 pounds (152 centimeters and 50 kilograms) and 6’4″ and 223 pounds is. 193 cm and 100 kg).
ELON muskThe U.S. company is also getting into the space tourism game, but its plans include trips that are too long. The cost is also predicted to be astronomical – tens of millions of dollars.
In September, American billionaire Jared Isaacman chartered a mission called Inspiration 4 to carry him and three other passengers into orbit around Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon launched into space by a Falcon 9 rocket.
Then in January 2022, three businessmen will travel to the ISS with an experienced astronaut. The mission, named Ax-1, is being organized by the company Axiom Space, which has signed up for three other future flights with SpaceX.
Elon Musk’s company is also planning a four-person orbiter trip, organized by Intermediate Space Adventures – the same company in charge of the Japanese billionaire’s flight Yusaku Maezawa to the ISS in December, aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.
Maezawa is also thought to make a trip around the Moon in 2023, this time on a rocket still being developed by SpaceX, called Starship.
He invited eight members of the public to join him – but the applications have now closed.
You’ll just need a little patience. And a lot of money.
Here’s where things stand.
Two companies are offering short “suborbital” hops of a few minutes: Jeff Bezos’ blue original and Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket takes off vertically and the crew capsule separates and crosses the Karman Line (62 miles, or 100 kilometers, in altitude) before falling back to Earth with three parachutes.
Virgin Galactic uses a giant carrier aircraft, which takes off from a horizontal runway and then drops the rocket-propelled spacecraft. It climbs to more than 50 miles in altitude before gliding back in turn.
In both cases, six passengers are able to experience a few minutes of weightlessness from their seats and a view of Earth from space.
Virgin Galactic has said that regular commercial flights will begin in 2022, followed by two more test flights. Their waiting list is already long, 600 tickets have been sold so far.
But the company estimates it will eventually run 400 flights per year. Two seats on one of the first flights to receive in a prize draw are: registrations open until 1 September.
For Blue Origin, no detailed calendar has been announced.
“We are planning two more flights this year, then targeting several more flights in 2022,” a spokesman told AFP.
Another way to go to space is through reality television. space hero, an upcoming show, says it plans to send the winner of a contest International Space Station (ISS) in 2023.
The first tickets sold by Virgin Galactic went for between $200,000 and $250,000 each, but the company has warned that future sales will cost more.
Blue Origin hasn’t announced prices. The unnamed winner of the public auction paid $28 million for a seat on the first crewed flight, but decided to postpone his trip.
It is not known what amount was bid for the seat secured by Dutch teenager Oliver Damen, who will fly in place of the auction winner.
The more “budget conscious” might consider spending $125,000 for a seat space neptune: a capsule that provides 360-degree windows and is raised into the upper atmosphere by a balloon the size of a football stadium.
Despite the promise of spectacular views, the balloon only soars 19 miles—far from the limits of space, and weightlessness.
All 300 seats for 2024 are sold out, but reservations are open for 2025.
No — you are only expected to be in reasonable shape. Virgin Galactic’s training lasts only five days.
Blue Origin promises to teach you everything you need to know “a day before launch,” and its first crewed flight includes pioneer aviator Wally Funk, the oldest spacewalker at age 82. become a passenger.
The company’s requirements included being able to climb seven flights of stairs within 90 seconds (the height of the launch tower) and being between 5’0″ and 110 pounds (152 centimeters and 50 kilograms) and 6’4″ and 223 pounds is. 193 cm and 100 kg).
ELON muskThe U.S. company is also getting into the space tourism game, but its plans include trips that are too long. The cost is also predicted to be astronomical – tens of millions of dollars.
In September, American billionaire Jared Isaacman chartered a mission called Inspiration 4 to carry him and three other passengers into orbit around Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon launched into space by a Falcon 9 rocket.
Then in January 2022, three businessmen will travel to the ISS with an experienced astronaut. The mission, named Ax-1, is being organized by the company Axiom Space, which has signed up for three other future flights with SpaceX.
Elon Musk’s company is also planning a four-person orbiter trip, organized by Intermediate Space Adventures – the same company in charge of the Japanese billionaire’s flight Yusaku Maezawa to the ISS in December, aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.
Maezawa is also thought to make a trip around the Moon in 2023, this time on a rocket still being developed by SpaceX, called Starship.
He invited eight members of the public to join him – but the applications have now closed.
.