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Virgin Launches Space Tourism Sunday, May 02, 2010 - Anuradha Menon Home >> Picture Of The Day >> Space   
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| A slightly more affordable option for the not-so-super-rich is a suborbital space flight. Several companies, including Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, want to send large numbers of tourists to an altitude of 100-160 kilometers. | ||||||||||
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The tourists would experience around six minutes of weightlessness and get a view of the Earth's curvature. Virgin Galactic has taken around 200 bookings for their suborbital flights, which may begin in 2011. A seat on board one of the first voyages currently costs £120,000, but Sir Richard Branson has said the price should drop significantly in the future. Other companies exploring the possibility of suborbital space tourism include Blue Origin, Space Adventures, Armadillo Aerospace, and XCOR Aerospace. (Source: Virgin Galactic) |
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For those interested in all things New Space (i.e. entrepreneurial space industry), we keep exclusively follow this emerging industry at http://www.62MileClub.com |
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Space tourism is the tourists paying for flights into space. As of 2009, orbital space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport. The price for a flight brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft is US$ 20–35 million. The space tourists usually sign contracts with third parties to conduct certain research while in orbit. This helps to minimize their own expenses. Infrastructure for a suborbital space tourism industry is being developed through the construction of spaceports in numerous locations, including California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, Alaska, Wisconsin, Esrange in Sweden as well as the United Arab Emirates. Some use the term \"personal spaceflight\" as in the case of the Personal Spaceflight Federation. ++++++++++++++++++ Jack Best Tourism Info |
