Science and the Unknown

18.03.2011 15:18

Tourists. Photo from hombiz.ru

How much does it cost to fly into space today?

Who among us did not want to be in space at least once in their life? To experience weightlessness and see Earth from space, and experience the emotions that overwhelm astronauts during their extraterrestrial missions. There are a lot of people who wish to do it, however, one wish is not enough ... A flight into space is not cheap fun. And if you were not able to become a dedicated astronaut, there is all the more reason you will not make a space tourist either! Unfortunately, a tour to the stars will cost you 30-40 million dollars. So we, mere mortals, have no choice but to wait. One day space travel may become more affordable, and everyone will be able to feel like Gagarin. In the meantime, the road to the stars may open only in a dream, and only if you're lucky enough...

Of course, there is an alternative – a suborbital flight. It will cost you about $200 thousand. However, your flight time will be more modest. Tourists can participate in space adventures not more than for 2.5 hours, while the true space tour lasts 7-10 days. But even within a couple of hours, rich gagarins will be able to feel a few minutes of weightlessness and see almost the same what real astronauts see during a full-scale flight.

Currently, the most well-known private companies organizing suborbital flights are Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures. June 23, 2008, Virgin Galactic opened the first sales for its flights in Russia. However, the space tourists will be able to use their tickets only in 2011, as the start of "suborbital" tourism was scheduled for this year.

Among the people wishing to make a two-hour trip into space is, for example, the former co-owner of Euroset, Timur Artemiev, who was summoned early last year for questioning in the case of Chichvarkin and who has since been living abroad. He intends to make a suborbital flight with his wife. Rumor has it that John Travolta, Sigourney Weaver, and socialite Paris Hilton have already booked the seats on the suborbital spaceship.

In the extreme case, if the desire to visit space is still strong, but the person has no wish to sell an apartment to buy a space ticket, one can also make use of land-based space tourism and make a tour of Star City ... Here you can see with your own eyes what a space station is, learn about the history of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, the history of Star City, get skills of work in the open space by dipping into the pool of the CTC weightless environment training facility. But most importantly, one can experience real weightlessness there! For over 30 years, all the cosmonauts and astronauts, while preparing for flight in weightlessness, get training in the so-called ‘flying laboratory’. This is the primary training facility for practicing skills in the absence of gravity. The flying laboratory is in fact an Airbus IL-76, specifically adapted for training astronauts. It has a specific atmospheric regime inside, while the interior walls are lined with special material to prevent injuries. During the flight (about 1.5 hours), the trainees get 8-15 various regimes of short-term weightlessness lasting 25-30 seconds. Typically, during one training flight you can enjoy 4-7 minutes of free floating. This type of service would cost 907,000 rubles for a group of 15 tourists.

Now, who are the lucky tourists who managed to stay in space for several days? The first such man was an American businessman of Italian origin, Dennis Tito. He was on board the Russian Soyuz spacecraft from April 28 to May 6, 2001. The second space tourist was a businessman from South Africa, Mark Shuttleworth. His flight began April 25, 2002, and ended May 5. And on October 1, 2005, another American businessman, Gregory Olsen was launched to the International Space Station. The landing of his spacecraft on Earth took place on October 10 the same year.

The fourth space tourist was American Anousheh Ansari, of Iranian origin. Her cosmos exposure occurred from 18 to 29 September, 2006. And on April 7, 2007, the flight of American billionaire Charles Simonyi started. The landing took place on April 21. The sixth tourist was a computer games developer from America, millionaire Richard Garriott. His flight took place October 12 – 28, 2008. And from March 26 to April 8, 2009, an American billionaire, Hungarian-born Charles Simonyi stayed in space, too.

The last in the list of the lucky ones, but not the last one in the history of space tourism was Canadian Guy Laliberté. He went to the stars on September 30 and returned to Earth on October 11, 2009.

By Lyubov Yu. Moskvina, BCM.ru staff writer
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