There is a stiff competition going on between the space tourism companies. While the rich cutomers have spent a whopping $200,000 per ticket for 2.5-hour flight aboard Sir Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo, other firms are also battling out to take you on an amazing journey to the edge of space as soon as possible. Now, a team of British rocketeers, Starchaser boss Steve Bennett and astronaut Matt Shrewbridge, plan to take you into the space by 2015.
Interestingly, two anonymous tourists, (Ian & Scott?
), have already paid £250,000 each for the first seats, with the other seating spaces available at £98,000 + taxes (space tax?
).
Starchaser are quoted as saying 'Our customers will get to fly in a real rocket, wearing a real spacesuit and will undertake an authentic space mission just like the early Astronauts did in the 1960s. They will see the blackness of outer space, the curvature of the earth and they will feel weightless for a few minutes. My goal is to open the space frontier for everyone, to make access to space easy and inexpensive.'
Obviously, before they could put tourists into space for real, they need to perform a series of trials. In November this year, Starchaser will test the 20ft Launch Escape System (LES), which is a rescue pod that separates from the rocket in case the spacecraft fails. A manned launch test is expected next year when they will lift the 70ft Starchaser 4 off the ground in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire.
In case anyone is wondering, Morecambe Bay is the UK equivalent to Cape Canaveral.
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