Coming Soon: Space Flights For Cheaper
Thought Virgin Galactic had the public space travel market sewn shut? Well think again -- there's a new player coming to the game.
The company, XCOR Aerospace, of Mojave, CA, announced that its two-seat Lynx suborbital spaceship will carry people or payloads to where they will experience weightlessness and see the stars above and the Earth and its atmosphere below. This will launch XCOR into the emerging space tourism market, estimated at over a half-billion dollars.The Lynx will offer affordable access to space for individuals, researchers and educators," said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. "Future versions of Lynx will offer ever-improving capabilities for scientific and engineering research and commercial applications.
The spaceship, roughly the size of a small private airplane, will first take off in 2010 and will be capable of flying several times each day.
Rides will last approximately 30 minutes from take-off to landing, but there's no word on pricing yet. It's definitely going to be cheaper than $200,000 Virgin Galactic rides, but probably still expensive. My guess is a tentacled arm and leg! Get it? Because aliens have tentacled appendages. That was a space joke. Just like this one: Why doesn't NASA let me fly the space shuttle? Because I'm a freaking idiot!
Another picture showing what a typical flight will consist of, along with a worthwhile video, after the jump.
Thanks to Gaston, whose intelligence is out of this world, for the tip
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I really have no idea what I just watched but it reminded me of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Also, I think it carried a powerful message. One about doing it. In space. Docking [vimeo] Thanks to C, who has actually done it in space and always tells me the story and it ma... / Continue →
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Virgin Galactic recently refused $1 million from an undisclosed company to make a space porn aboard the SpaceShipTwo. The cash was slapped on the table "up-front, for a sex-in-space movie", said the company's prez, Will Whitehorn, According to Space.com. He confirmed: "That wa... / Continue →
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Virgin Galactic recently showed off the spaceships that will take rich passengers into sub-orbit starting as early as next year. The ships will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The picture above just shows the spaceship -- SpaceShip Two, but White Knight Two, wh... / Continue →
