Space Tourist

A company called Space Miles has announced that they will be holding the first set of continuous space flight lotteries in the world. The idea is for potential passenger to buy a lottery ticket and the winners get a ride into suborbital space.

According to the press release, “Space Shuffle ticket prices have yet to be fully established but are unlikely to be more than $15.00 each.

“The prizes will include all travel and accommodation expenses and even provide an element of “spending money” to enable individual flight winners, (plus one
accompanying guest or partner), to fully celebrate their elevation to ‘Astronaut Status’.

“For Space Enthusiasts who don’t quite have their “Space Legs” The Space Shuffle intends to offer lower level prizes of ‘Edge of Space” and “Zero-G Parabolic’ flights.

“The number of prizes is unlimited and every time a winner is rewarded, the automated system will simply re-calibrate itself to zero and the competitions will begin again immediately.”

More information will be posted in the coming weeks here.

Today, at approximately 10:30 am EST, the SpaceX Falcon 9 with its 9 Merlin engines helped propel the Dragon capsule into low earth orbit (LEO). The SpaceX Dragon and Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida as one of the first big steps in NASA’s COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) program.

The SpaceX Dragon orbited the earth at speeds up to 17,000 mph and was recovered in the Pacific Ocean, 500 miles of the California coast at approximately 2 pm EST.

According to SpaceX, “This marks the first time a commercial company has successfully recovered a spacecraft reentering from low-Earth orbit. It is a feat performed by only six nations or government agencies: the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India, and the European Space Agency.”

I find it a little curious as to what SpaceX means by this phrase since in 2004 Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Anasari X-Prize by flying into LEO and back. Perhaps it is “recovered” that is the operative word in their statement.

No matter, since the SpaceX Dragon had a successful flight venturing where few have gone before but many in the future will be going within the next couple of years.