View of the Earth from the space

In the U.S. is almost finished construction of the first spaceport for space travels

Near future promises great prospects for tourists, which include not only travel to the most remote corners of the planet, but space travel. Building of the world's first commercial spaceport, located in New Mexico between the mountains of Rio Grande and San Andres, will be completed in just 4 months.

During the last few months of this year Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson, has made several giant steps toward the goal of space tourism. Recently, was made a test landing on the first space 10,000-foot runway. The Enterprise spaceship of Virgin Galactic, named after the famous starship from "Star Trek" ended its three-week flight on October 21 this year in the Mojave Desert in Southern California.

According to Sir Branson, the first commercial flight of tourists into space will be performed by Virgin Galactic not later than in 2 years. Currently, the company's customers, who paid a deposit of 20,000 dollars (total cost $ 200,000), are international celebrities, businessmen and academics. In the future Virgin Galactic space tourists list are such names as famous English humorist, television and radio broadcaster, actor, writer and publicist, as well as the husband of American singer Katy Perry, Russell Brand, a French industrial designer Philippe Starck , American actress Victoria Principal, a brilliant physicist and one of the most influential scientists of our time, Professor Stephen Hawking, the British owners of real estate agencies Candy brothers, Candy & Candy, a Hollywood filmmaker and creator of the "X-Men", "Dr. House", "Return of the Superman " movies Bryan Singer. One of the most elderly members of the project (91 years old) of Virgin Galactic is a British scientist, member of the Royal Society, the creator of Gaia Hypothesis, Professor James Lovelock.

After a special medical examination, a series of psychological tests and a three-day preparatory course, space tourists will experience zero gravity for 5 minutes at an altitude of 112.654 kilometers above the earth (according to generally accepted standards space starts at 100 kilometers).

According to one of the future space tourists, it is a lot of money, but how can you determine the price of the dream of the whole life?

Alesia Belaya

Date: 18/11/2010