Sir Richard Branson yesterday unveiled ambitions plans to take space tourism to the masses over the next ten years.
At the launch in Dubai he named Namira Salim a UAE -based resident as one of the first 100 people to fly into space on Virgin Galactic - the first aircraft from the space travel arm of the company.
"Space is somewhere to take your fiancee and even get married. In our lifetime we also hope to open space portal hotels,"Sir Richard told reporters at the press conference in Dubai.
"We are literally pushing new frontiers in the history of mankind by making commercial space travel a possibility." To date 44,000 people have applied to join the six-member crew of the inaugural flight from New Mexico in 2008.
[Source: 7Days.com]
11 comments:
inshallah you'll be next :)
& welcome back
do u know how much does it cost?
Tickets will cost in the region of 100,000 American dollars for the first few years, although competition and maturing technology should start to bring prices down before too long. I'm hoping I'll be able to make enough money to buy a ticket before I'm too old to fly ;-)
Obviously this is also good news for people with the right sort of education and skills to qualify as astronauts, as these space tourism companies will need crews - and they're not likely to be bothered about your nationality, unlike the government space agencies.
Yes, it's true Space commercial flights costs around $100,000 but there will be only sub-orbital flights and spend only 8 min just little bit above the Earth's atmosphere. There are several space tourism companies such as Space Adventures, Virgin Galactic and Rocket Plane.
Last October when I was in Japan for International Astronical Congress in Japan. I have met the CEO of Rocket Plan and told me about his space tourism company based in Oklohoma. I had a nice lunch and sushi dinner with him. And we actually talked about the oppurtinites on getting Kuwait in Space industry. Sounds exciting, I know!! for more read this http://spacekuwait.com/club/forums/83/ShowPost.aspx
I aslo told George French it was expensive for only 8 minutes in space. I'd rather to pay $20 million and spend 10 days onboard the Space Station "with Krikalev" :P
Even though the first tourist flights will only be suborbital, they are at least a step in the right direction. Going straight to orbital flight would be much more challenging, both financially and technologically. Once a few companies have proved that they can make a profit with suborbital tourist flights, it should be easier for them to develop an orbital capability - maybe with intercontinental flights as an intermediate step (which is something Starchaser has recently studied). Orbital operations will come in a few years, but we have to take it one step at a time. Bigelow Aerospace are already planning to launch a space hotel, and SpaceX have designed an orbital capsule to service it - hopefully they'll both succeed, but other companies will be doing suborbital flights first.
One advantage for a would-be astronaut who gets a job working for a space tourism company would be that they'd get to fly a lot more often - if you become a NASA astronaut, you're chances of flying at all are only about fifty-fifty, and even then you'd be lucky to do more than a couple of missions, with years in-between them. Working as a crewmember for a space tourism company, the flights might only be suborbital, but you'd probably be flying every week - maybe every day.
Yes, if I had the money, I too would pay $20 million for a stay aboard the ISS, but it's probably not very likely that I'll ever earn that much - I don't have $100,000 for a short hop either, but at least I can imagine earning that much money in the next few years, all being well.
Congratulations Namira
how much does it cost to stay in the ISS
I remember you teaching me about the planets and constellations ever since I was little. I remember the glow in the dark stars you bought for me to put on my ceiling and all of the beautiful artwork you helped me make. This is your dream and I am so glad to see you with this wonderful opportunity. I am so proud of you. Congratulations, I wish you all the best.
Love,
Your Favorite Cousin, Sara
Namira Gee! When is your space flight?
wow.....my daughter wld luv to meet u,,,she adores anusheh ansari....
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