Why settle for another ho-hum cruise around the globe or even an
expedition to Mount Everest when a truly out-of-this-world travel
experience is at hand? That’s what Netherlands-based
Space Expedition Corporation
(SXC) is promising — a suborbital journey that will qualify you as an
official astronaut, all for the “bargain” price of $95,000. Of course,
it’s a deal only in a relative sense — the closest competition is a
similar suborbital program being offered by Richard Branson’s Virgin
Galactic (think Virgin Atlantic airline gone outer space), but that runs
$200,000. Right now, neither company is boarding any actual planes — er,
spaceships — since the programs are still in the beta phase. But SXC
expects to be launching (literally) by the second half of 2014 and is
taking paid reservations for what it says will be a “life-changing
experience.” The company notes that its specially designed spacecraft
(“powered by four revolutionary rocket engines”) will travel at speeds
of more than 2,000 miles per hour, taking passengers to outer space
(once you pass the 62-mile altitude mark, you’re indeed considered an
astronaut) in less than four minutes...more
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| Bason & Richardson still in the beta phase |
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