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Science Chinese businessman to take off into space with Virgin
Science Chinese businessman to take off into space with Virgin | Chinese businessman to take off into space with Virgin |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Tuesday, 28 November 2006 | |
  
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Science DiscussionsA Chinese man from eastern China’s Zhejiang province has been lucky enough to be selected in the first batch of 100 passengers. The man, who is under 40 and had asked for his identity to be kept secret is set to be China’s first space tourist, where after a 2.5 suborbital trip, only a reported four minutes will be spent experiencing the weightlessness of space. Only six passengers will be carried at a time, with two pilots, on a flight that will take place only once per week. Virgin Galactics’s flights will be launched in the US from California and New Mexico. In the past, the only way to become a space tourist was to spend considerably more than US $200,000, but ten times that at US $20 million per trip. Only four private tourists with enough money and the stamina to survive a real rocket launch and up to a week in space have undertaken the trip so far, with the first being in 2001, when a US businessman travelled to the International Space Station and spent a week in orbit. While space travel has only been the province of a selected few, with regular and advanced space travel only seen on science fiction TV shows, movies and in the pages of science fiction novels, the idea of space travel for everyday consumers (albeit with a spare US $200,000) is firmly here. As prices fall, going into space will be the ultimate thrill. While regular space travel to the moon, orbiting space stations and even settlements on Mars and other planets is still a few generations away, space travel is finally on its way to becoming as common as a voyage across the oceans. {moscomment} |
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