American Tourism firm to offer space rides for $102,000! (would be cheapest plan yet)

Space Adventures and Armadillo would undercut SpaceShipOne price tag

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An American space tourism company that arranges multimillion-dollar treks to the International Space Station for the ultra-wealthy has struck a new deal to offer suborbital spaceflights for nearly half the going cost. The price is still steep, though: $102,000 for the works.

Virginia-based firm Space Adventures has signed an exclusive deal with Armadillo Aerospace, a Texas-based company founded by computer game entrepreneur John Carmack, to sell space tourist seats on new suborbital rocket ships that are currently in development at Armadillo.

Flights aboard Armadillo's vertically-launched rocket ship in development will depart from a spaceport in the United States and take passengers to regions above 62 miles (100 kilometers), where space begins. After the engine is shut down, those aboard will experience up to five minutes of weightlessness and will have the opportunity to gaze out at 360-degree views into space and Earth's horizon below.

While the $102,000 price tag for one of Space Adventure's suborbital spaceflights may seem hefty, it is nearly $100,000 less than rival company Virgin Galactic's asking price for a seat on SpaceShipTwo, which is undergoing captive-carry tests at the moment.

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Source: www.msnbc.msn.com...

I think this is terrific news. Get Space travel into the hands of the Capitalist thinking minds and lets get it done. After the recent decline of NASA, this is just what we need to get Space Travel a shot in the arm.

Hopefully some smart thinking person at at either of these two companies is thinking about a way to have a commercial wing of the company-which could start taking the NASA people up to Space instead of Russia. Keep the money home.

This will be interesting to see a price war also. I guess it will bepend on how you desire to see Space-for 5 mins!

Some related info on the SpaceShipTwo: Virgin Galactic Flies Passenger Spaceship and Mothership for First Time: www.space.com...

I would rather go up in that very good looking pod, than spaceship one.

Spaceship one is a disaster waiting to happen. its gonna break up on entry one time or another i gurantee it.

reply to post by MR BOB


I feel the exact opposite. I think in the event of an emergency, the winged craft would be better to get back to earth-even if gliding.

In the Pod, if something happens, I think you would become a tumbling ball of, soon-to-be, twisted metal. How would be able to stablize itself?

I would want to be fully briefed on the EM procedures and escape plans etc.

The pod is based on past experience with spacecraft. In the worst case scenario, the vehicle would tumble initially, but would stabilize in the atmosphere in a nose-down attitude, much as the crew compartment did for Challenger.

The key for safety would be that an emergency chute, separate from the main chute system, would be required to return the spacecraft to a nose up attitude. From there, they could then deploy the main chute arresting system.

Personally, I have been telling people for twenty years that I would be able to fly into space on a commercial vehicle before I turned seventy. While my eyes, before Lasik, kept me out of the astron aut program, I am determined to go into space. In ten years, the price will likely drop in half anyway. Once two operational systems become functional, the commercial space race will be on, and prices will soon drop.

Actually, though, even if they remain the same, the net effect will be the same. Who would like to buy their food and gasoline at 2000 prices, instead of 2010 prices?

reply to post by Truth1000


The problem with the whole safety aspect is that the people paying to go are no professional NASA types. The folks at NASA train and train on safety to to point they do it in their sleep and they all depend on each other.

I just don't see how it could be safe and affordable. The first incident and the lawsuits will end the company and any future ventures into it-except by country run programs, like NASA.

But, all the power to them. It's probably going to happen someday-so the sooner the better. But smartly.