This isn’t exactly Ender’s Game related, but I thought it was something you guys would be at least interested in hearing about, particularly if you’re, ahem, rich.
I’m sure a lot of you have heard about other companies selling tickets for space flights, but now another company is joining the fold with Space Expedition Corporation, a Dutch startup company that has begun selling commercial tickets for private space flights.
The cost? Oh, it starts at only around $95,000.
Yeesh.
But hey, I know there are people out there who have been dying to go into space ever since they got their hands on a copy of Ender’s Game. Who knows, maybe one of you has been saving your entire life for a chance like this. SXC is selling tickets for flights starting at the end of this year, though for $5,000 more you could wait until Fall 2015 and go 40 extra kilometers up. I don’t know enough about space to know exactly how much of a difference this is, but it sounds significant enough for me. Plus, going into space is a serious endeavor, and I’d want to make sure I had as much training as possible before going up there.
Flights last for a total of 1 hour, with most of it taken up by flight. It looks like you end up spending around 5 minutes up in space.
From my super extensive research on Wikipedia (ha), the altitude that is considered to be “space” is determined by your specific location on Earth, the Kármán line is an arbitrary definition that defines the edge of space. I’d assume, though, that if you were one of their first customers, they’d ensure that by location and altitude, you really are going to be up in what is technically considered “space.” Otherwise, what’s the point of shelling out all that dough, right?
Either way, if any of you lucky Launchies give this a try, close the bag.
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