The Beginning Of Space Tourism

from the how's-the-air-up-there? dept

While Jeff Bezos may be pushing his own space tourism plans, he's a bit behind Space Adventures, which today announced the launch of their official space tourism program, in association with the Russian space agency. This is the same organization that brokered the deals to put millionaires Dennis Tito and (the aptly named) Mark Shuttleworth in space in the last couple of years. The difference this time, is the flight is specifically for the sake of space tourism (with the previous two, they simply added the "tourist" to a planned mission). The first such flight is going to be for two tourists, each of whom need to pony up $20 million. You might think that would limit the market, somewhat, but they claim they've already got about a dozen applicants. It sounds like they're hoping to have two people who know each other go (they suggest "a father and son or a bride and groom") meaning you'd have to find a set of people with a combined $40 million to toss away. Now, I'm sure it's quite an amazing trip and (literally) a "once in a lifetime" opportunity - but $40 million is a bit much to spend on a vacation, especially when there's a relatively high chance you might not make it back alive.

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