Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Space travel? Virgin's Richard Bronson can do it!

Ahhh, the dreams of kids (and some adults) all over the globe, space travel.  Flying high above (most consider the edge of space to be 62 miles up) the earth where gravity leaves you and the universe awaits you.   As a reference, most passenger planes fly around 30,000 feet which is 6 miles up.   Currently the most powerful military jets can't climb much above 100,000 feet, which would be just under 19 miles altitude. 

(Passengers get about 5 mins of weightlessness)

But Richard Bronson, founder of mega-company Virgin Galactic, wants to introduce space travel as early as 2012.   He has plans to use what they call a "SpaceShipTwo" to take high paying guests into space in weekly flights.  The 60 foot space ship will be escorted to around 50,000 feet wheren then rockets will kick in and take you to suborbital space. 

Once the boosters kick in you'll be about 68 miles above earth and you'll be cruising around 2,600 mph.  Inside there are two large windows passengers to look at earth from a view that's only been seen by astronauts.   All 6 passengers and the 2 crew member then have a 25 minute glide back down to planet earth.

(SpaceShipTwo soon to be in action)

How much will this wonderful trip set you back?  $200,000 for 2 on this 2.5 hour trip .  Already more then 375 people have plunked down deposits for the prospective trip.  When it comes time, if you had the money, would YOU pay 200k for this quick jog to space?

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