Space Vacations Becoming More Affordable

Image courtesy of XCOR Aerospace. Pilot Rick Searfoss and XCOR demonstrator vehicle.

The space travel price wars have begun.

The first suborbital passenger flight may not be scheduled until 2010 but RocketShip Tours  and XCOR Aerospace recently placed a $95,000 price tag for a space travel package including five nights at a luxury resort, complete training, medical evaluation and screening, cancellation insurance and the flight itself. That's less than half the $200,000 cost of a similar experience on Virgin Galactic. Even more impressive for the price, the RocketShip Tours experience puts the passenger in the co-pilot's seat for each flight, rather than flying groups of tourists into space.

“Our goal is to make space travel accessible and affordable to those who aspire to experience the ultimate adventure,” explains Jules Klar, General Sales Agent for XCOR Aerospace and chairman and CEO of RocketShip Tours. “This is sure to be a life-altering experience, and I am honored to have the opportunity to present it to the public.”

Participants in the RocketShip Tours/XCOR Aerospace program will travel to the edge of space aboard the Lynx, a two-seat, suborbital space vehicle powered by environmentally friendly rocket engines which use non-toxic kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellants. Unlike most rocketships in Earth's history, the Lynx has a clear canopy providing panoramic views of the Earth and space overhead, in front of and to either side of the passenger and pilot. Pilot Rick Searfoss will take passengers and payloads to the edge of space four times daily.

Check out this YouTube video for a preview of what a flight in the Lynx might be like:

Arizona has a proud history of involvement in space exploration. It's only fitting that one of the first companies to offer space travel to the public, RocketShip Tours, is based in Phoenix. Lynx passenger will join such space luminaries are William McMichael Shepherd, who will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in May 2009, Lynx pilot Rick Searfoss, who graduated in 1980 from Undergraduate Pilot Training at Williams Air Force Base (now Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport) in East Mesa, and Clyde Tombaugh who discovered Pluto while working as at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Shepherd graduated from Arcadia High School in Scottsdale in 1967. Twenty years later, in 1987, he made his first spaceflight as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Atlantis whose mission included taking detailed photographs of the Grand Canyon. Shepherd went on to command the first mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in October 2000 where he lived and worked for 141 days.

If a $95,000 ticket is still out of your price range, would be space travelers can take a virtual flight for $6 or less at the Challenger Space Center in Peoria. One of only two Challenger Centers in the world, the unique 21,433 square foot facility, designed by architect Paul Winslow, includes multi-story silver cannisters resembling booster rockets, and ten galaxy-lit columns representing the familiar launch countdown, opened in the Summer of 2000. Since then, more than 100,000 visitors have passed through the Center's doors taking the first step in an out-of-this-world adventure. One Saturday a month through May, the Challenger Space Center holds Family Fun Days where visitors can make and launch their own rocket and/or experience a simulated launch into outer space aboard the Center's Earth space Transit Module among many other fun activities. During the summer, the Challenger Space Center hosts full- and half-day camps providing elementary and middle school age students the opportunity to discover how astronauts live and work in space, how rockets are launched and a variety of other space-related adventures.

XCOR Aerospace, founded in 1999, is located at the Mojave Spaceport and civilian Aerospace Test Center in Mojave, California. XCOR engages in research, development and production of reusable rocket-powered launch vehicles.

“The natural evolution of human exploration knows no bounds,” said Klar. “RocketShip Tours and XCOR have come together to usher in the private sector's role in space exploration. There is no doubt that a new era of pioneering space enthusiasts is emerging.”