Space tourism: almost a reality

July 20, 2:58 PMPhoenix Travel ExaminerJay Hammond

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Apollo 11 Launch. Courtesy of NASA.

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Forty years after man first stepped foot on the Moon, space and space-tourism is again being widely and excitedly discussed. NASA, other global space organizations and private entities are collaboratively investigating the viability and cost effectiveness of space tourism. For a lucky few space tourism has meant accompanying career astronauts on actual space missions. In the immediate future, however, most travelers are likely to experience space through shorter sub-orbital flights.

“This mission to the ISS fulfilled a lifelong dream to experience spaceflight as my father did 35 years ago,” said Richard Garriott, entrepreneur and renowned video game designer who traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-13. “This experience – from my training, to lift-off, to staying on the ISS – is evidence of the critical role science and technology innovations play in advancing humankind's exploration, and eventual commercialization, of space.”

Two companies are vying for the first commercial space tourism dollars. RocketShip Tours and Virgin Galactic are both confident that leisure travelers will be willing to spend their vacation dollars on short trips into space. As these companies race to get theirships ready to lunch, several recent events indicate space tourism is closer than many think.

In February 2009, the cost of space travel declined by 50 percent, effectively launching the first space fare war.

In June 2009, Ensemble Travel Group, an international organization of nearly 500 professional travel agencies in the U.S. and Canada, announced a new partnership with RocketShip Tours making it possible for travelers to plan space vacations through 500 travel agencies across the U.S. and Canada.

On July 27, 2009 the Virgin Galactic Mothership “Eve” will arrive and execute a number of low passes at the EEA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009. This will be “Eve's” first appearance before a general-public audience.

“Human space exploration is at a crossroad,” explains Susan Hassler, IEEE member and Editor-in-chief of IEEE Spectrum. “Scientists and engineers around the world are now testing and building technologies that will define both manned and unmanned space exploration for the next 100 years. A great many of us would love to human beings go back to the moon and beyond to Mars.”

Astronauts used to be a very restricted club. Few people could say they had been to space and even fewer have walked on the Moon. Today, a growing number of the world's citizens are exploring the possibility of traveling in space, not for a career but for a vacation.