go to outer space

MOJAVE, Calif., Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/—A travel entrepreneur who introduced hundreds of thousands of Americans to European travel in the 1960’s has taken luxury travel to new heights – the edge of space.

Jules Klar, founder of Phoenix, AZ-based RocketShip Tours, has announced that his company will immediately begin selling rides to the edge of space for $95,000 per flight. Participants will fly aboard the Lynx, a two-seat suborbital vehicle being built by California-based XCOR Aerospace.

“Years ago, my dream was to introduce the world to new travel opportunities at prices that were consistent with a unique experience,” said Klar. “In 1961 I created $5-A-Day Tours in partnership with Arthur Frommer that enabled thousands of Americans to see Europe at affordable prices.” After moving to Arizona, Klar created Great American Travel, a high-end boutique operation specializing in luxury cruises and tours. “We’ve helped thousands of sophisticated adventurous travelers visit exotic destinations all over the world including Antarctica, where they developed a deeper appreciation for its beautiful, pristine and fragile environment. Today, I am very proud to announce this partnership with XCOR Aerospace to offer participants an out of this world experience – a front row seat to the edge of Space.”

“The natural evolution of human exploration knows no bounds. 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. In fact, prior to signing this agreement with RocketShip Tours, XCOR had already taken paid reservations for approximately 20 flights,” said Klar.

XCOR Chief Test Pilot and three-time Space Shuttle Pilot and Commander, Rick Searfoss said the Lynx will carry people or payloads to the edges of space up to four times a day. Seated next to him in the co-pilot seat, participants will undoubtedly experience the thrill of a lifetime. The awe- inspiring view of the curvature of Earth, the thin blue mantle of the atmosphere below, and inky blackness of space above will provide participants with unforgettable memories beyond description.

XCOR officials discussed the technology used on the two-seat, fully reusable launch vehicle that takes off like an airplane, and lands the same way, while Chris Gilman of Orbital Outfitters, a NASA spacesuit contractor, demonstrated the spacesuit technology that will be worn by those flying in the Lynx. Gilman, winner of an Academy Award for special effects, said the suit is both lighter and safer than older NASA spacesuits.

Klar said he was inspired by the revolutionary Lynx suborbital vehicle because it offers participants a unique and intimately personal experience. “You’re sitting in a cockpit in the co-pilot’s seat beside your astronaut pilot, with a panoramic view of the stars above and Earth below. It is the ride of your life!”

“I am going to fly aboard the Lynx because I want to experience space from a front row seat,” said Danish investment banker Per Wimmer, who will take the first commercial flight aboard the Lynx. Wimmer, based in London, has already earned a reputation as a pioneering adventurer. He recently made the first tandem skydive over Mt. Everest, and maintains a website, www.wimmerspace.com. Wimmer, who uses his adventures to promote various charities, says, “My goal is to place the Dannebrog, the Danish flag, on the Moon one day. Flying to the edge of space aboard the Lynx will make me the first Dane to experience suborbital space flight and takes me one step closer to my ultimate goal.”

Klar said his company is enlisting innovative and progressive travel professionals to sell seats on the Lynx. “Those who are interested in a suborbital space flight can visit our website, www.rocketshiptours.com, and choose a Space Tourism Specialist who is trained and certified by RocketShip Tours.”

The total cost of the Lynx flight experience is $95,000. A deposit of $20,000 begins the process of assigning the participant to the qualification program. Klar said one does not have to be an athlete to fly aboard the Lynx, but the procedure will include a medical questionnaire and a screening performed by qualified aeronautic physicians. Instruction regarding life support systems, flight physiology, and other aspects of the Lynx suborbital flight will also be provided. “We want to ensure the experience is as safe as possible and that people are adequately trained and prepared.”

“Since this is a suborbital launch, training will require familiarization with the spacesuit and what will be experienced while sitting in the cockpit.” Klar said. “We will provide deluxe accommodations for all those who share in ‘The Right Stuff’ experience we offer and become part of this historic stage in the evolution of human space flight.”

“After the flight is concluded, participants will receive an HD DVD recording of their flight experience as well as other mementos,” Klar said.

XCOR COO Andrew Nelson noted that RocketShip Tours’ announcement marks an important milestone in space exploration efforts. “American entrepreneurs are succeeding – we are bringing down the cost of space flight and making it affordable,” said Nelson. “What is most astonishing is that competition has already reduced prices before a single vehicle has flown. What a fabulous holiday gift this is going to make for many people who thought they had everything.”

“I’ve had a long career in travel, and I have found that we are not offering a destination, so much as we are offering an experience that appeals to the pioneering spirit inside all of us,” said Klar. “This type of adventure is truly transcendent because it widens our horizons, and teaches us not only about the world we live in, but something about ourselves as well. I believe that the view from space aboard the Lynx will undoubtedly be positively life-changing in ways we can only dream of.”

RocketShip Tours, Inc. is the General Sales Agent for XCOR Aerospace and exclusive global provider of participant services for the Lynx suborbital vehicle. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, RocketShip Tours was founded by Jules H. Klar, an innovative travel entrepreneur.

XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, California. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket-powered vehicles and propulsion systems that enable affordable access to space.

SOURCE XCOR Aerospace
Copyright 2008 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.

That is the current price tag. Not easy but very doable.

Right now two valid options:

http://www.masonhorvath.com
http://www.virgingalactic.com

Jul 28 02:18 PM US/Eastern

British tycoon Richard Branson on Monday unveiled a futuristic aircraft that will ferry tourists to the edge of heaven as part of Virgin Galactic’s much-anticipated space program.

The aircraft – WhiteKnightTwo – was rolled out for invited guests and media at an early morning ceremony in the Mojave desert, north of Los Angeles, at the headquarters of aerospace firm Scaled Composites.

The high-altitude aircraft, also named “Eve” in honor of Branson’s mother, will act as the mothership for the spacecraft Spaceship Two, which in turn will launch in midair and send two crew and six passengers hurtling into space.

The first flights of WhiteKnightTwo are expected to take place later this year, with Spaceship Two being attached for a maiden flight sometime in 2009.

Virgin Galactic is hoping to send its first paying customers into suborbital space some 110 kilometers (70 miles) above the earth in 2010. The company has said more than more than 200 passengers have already signed up for the first flights, which will cost 200,000 dollars each.

“The rollout of WhiteKnightTwo takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this most ambitious of projects is not only for real but is making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation,” Branson said in a statement.

Branson said the decision to name the launch vehicle after his mother reflected the pioneering spirit of his space tourism venture.

“We are naming it ‘Eve’ after my mother, Eve Branson, but also because it represents a first and a new beginning, the chance for our ever growing group of future astronauts and other scientists to see our world in a completely new light,” Branson added.

In an interview with CNN, Branson later said that he and members of his family would be among the first wave of space travelers, and admitted he expected to be nervous at take-off.

“I’m going up myself, and I’m sure my stomach is going to turn, my children, my parents are going up,” Branson said.

“There’s going to be an element of nervousness, but it will be I think the journey of a lifetime .. So, you know, you’ve got to have a little bit of nervousness. It’s natural.”

WhiteKnightTwo boasts a wingspan 140 feet (43 meters) and is the world’s largest carbon composite aircraft, Virgin Galactic said.

With a maximum altitude of more than 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), the twin-fuselage craft will be able to support up to four daily spaceflights, the company added.

WhiteKnightTwo was designed and built by Scaled Composites, a California-based aerospace company run by engineer Burt Rutan.

In July last year, three people were killed after a rocket being developed by the company in connection with the Virgin Galactic program exploded.

My comment: I predict I am about 10 years away from this goal.

By Nicola Clark

Sunday, September 16, 2007

PARIS: The week after Richard Laronde returned home from a 16-day trek to the South Pole in January, he bought a ticket to outer space.

For Laronde, who had also journeyed to the North Pole in 2006, making the decision to splurge $200,000 on one of the world’s first commercial spaceflights took about as long as it takes to do a Google search for “space tourism.” “As soon as I got back from the South Pole, I got on the Internet,” said Laronde, 56, who owns a prospering event-planning business in Boston.

Within days he had wired a $20,000 deposit to an accredited space travel agent in New York.

“Astronauts were my heroes growing up,” said Laronde, who came of age in the early years of the U.S. space program. “It’s always been a childhood dream.”

With a personal net worth of more than $5 million, Laronde has the means to transform this particular fantasy into reality. And as a steadily growing number of companies have come to realize, he is not alone.

There are already several dozen space tourism ventures in various stages of development worldwide, analysts say, offering experiences ranging from a brief trip to the outer limits of the Earth’s atmosphere to an extended stay in a zero-gravity space hotel. Public and private investors in places as far flung as Dubai, New Mexico and Singapore are preparing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to develop full-blown “spaceports,” complete with hotels, museums, Imax theaters and other space-themed diversions.

With the first paying passengers expected to take flight sometime in late 2009, Futron, a market research firm, predicts that as many as 14,000 space tourists will be heading into space each year by 2021, generating annual revenue of more than $700 million.

“There is quite a contest going on at the moment between a number of companies,” said Walter Peeters, dean of the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. “I think people underestimate how fast this is developing. For the companies who succeed, it could be very, very lucrative.” The leading entrepreneurs driving this recreational space race include several household names, including the British billionaire Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com. But major corporations, including European Aeronautic Defense & Space, the parent company of Airbus, are also investing significant sums in projects designed to deliver well-heeled adventurers into space.

Branson’s venture, Virgin Galactic, is by far the most advanced in its plans, with test flights on its six-passenger space plane scheduled to begin next year. The company, which counts Laronde as a customer, says it has already received more than $24 million in deposits from about 200 would-be space tourists in 30 countries.

For their $200,000, these individuals will receive four days of specialized training followed by a three-hour flight involving just five minutes of weightlessness at an altitude of 70 miles, or 110 kilometers, above sea level. From there, the company says, passengers will be able to see 1,000 miles in any direction, as well as the curved blue line of the Earth’s atmosphere against the black sky of space. If all goes according to plan, Virgin Galactic says it expects to fly its first passengers in late 2009 or early 2010.

Virgin’s six-seat space plane, which is expected to cost more than $100 million to develop, is being built by Scaled Composites, an aerospace startup based in California that was acquired in July by Northrop Grumman. Branson’s Virgin Group expects to invest a total of $240 million of its own funds in the space flight project by 2013, money it expects to quickly begin to recoup once regular services begin.

“We would hope to be profitable within the first three years of flying,” said Will Whitehorn, a Virgin Galactic spokesman.

EADS Astrium, the space division of the European aerospace giant, unveiled plans this summer to develop its own four-seat space plane, with tickets to sell for around $150,000. The company is currently in discussions with a number of private investors and commercial partners with an eye to raising as much as $1 billion to finance the project by early 2008.

François Auque, the president of EADS Astrium, said in June he hoped the plane, which is expected to enter commercial service in 2012, would “wake up the space ambitions of Europe.” The project, he added, could also generate valuable technological spinoffs with other commercial and military applications.

Would-be rivals to Virgin Galactic and EADS abound. They include Benson Space, based in California, which plans to send its first test passengers into space in 2009 aboard a vertically launched craft that can reach space in just 15 minutes. Space Adventures, based in Virginia, claims to have more than 200 reservations with paid deposits worth $3 million, for a 90-minute ride on a modified Russian spacecraft sometime after 2011. (Space Adventures is best known for brokering deals with Russia to send the first three space tourists into orbit for a reported $20 million a person.)

Analysts say that Virgin’s two- to three-year head start on the competition should guarantee a steady stream of revenues for the company initially.

But forecasters at Futron and others predict that as the number of available seats on space planes increases, ticket prices will drop quickly – possibly as low as $40,000 – bringing a joyride into space within reach of nonmillionaires.

“Tourist number 150 will not be willing to pay the same price as tourist number five,” said Peeters of ISU.

Hence the need for the space tourism industry to quickly diversify its offerings, analysts say. A small handful of companies is already planning for this second phase, which would bring passengers to an orbital station, or space hotel, where they could spend several days in a weightless environment, roughly 200 miles above the Earth.

One prospective space resort operator is Galactic Suite, based in Barcelona, which aims to host its first guests in 2012. Created last year by a group of European engineers with backing from Spanish, Japanese and Middle Eastern investors, Galactic Suite expects to charge around $4 million for an adventure that includes eight weeks of training on a still-unspecified Caribbean island followed by a three-day stay in space. The company says it already has 28 prospective tourists signed up, who will be asked to advance half the ticket price as a deposit by the end of 2008.

But the real money, some analysts predict, is likely to be made from earthbound ventures linked to the personal space flight industry. The U.S. state of New Mexico has joined with Virgin Galactic to build a $225 million spaceport and visitors center by 2010 in the desert near the U.S. Army’s White Sands missile base. Space Adventures, of Virginia, together with the government of Singapore, is planning to spend at least $115 million to build a similar facility there, along with a second $265 million spaceport in the United Arab Emirates.

Xavier Claramunt, a founding director of Galactic Suite, said his company’s Caribbean spaceport development would include resort villas and offer outdoor activities such as golfing and scuba diving for tourists to use when they’re not busy training for space.

“It will have all the facilities needed to make the ground experience as exciting as the orbital one,” Claramunt said.

Peeters likened a spaceport to an airport-cum-tourist attraction along the lines of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida or even a Formula One racecourse. “Say you have 30 people racing, but you have maybe 3,000 people watching and spending money,” he said.

“The space tourist who flies brings his family and friends, who have to be occupied for four or five days” while the tourist is trained for the flight, Peeters said. “So in addition to hotels and shops you have flight simulators, maybe a medical facility where the whole family can get space certified. Let them taste space food. Even Imax. You can have a whole infrastructure around it.” New Mexico, for example, expects its “Spaceport America” to generate $1 billion in annual revenue by 2020 and to employ more than 5,000 people.

Still, while the economic possibilities may seem endless to space-travel enthusiasts, some warn that environmental and safety concerns could put off many who could otherwise afford space travel.

“Many people are fascinated with the idea of space travel, but they are afraid that it’s not ecological,” said Jean-François Rial, chief executive of the French travel agency Voyageurs du Monde, which began promoting space tours for Virgin Galactic in July.

Whitehorn, the Virgin Galactic spokesman, said the company was developing a new rocket fuel made from nitrous oxide and oxidized rubber that would power the space plane. “The CO2 emissions per person for one of our space flights will be less than a single business-class seat from London to New York,” Whitehorn said. “It will be the most environmentally efficient space launch system ever developed.”

The question of safety, however, does loom large, especially following a deadly explosion in July. Three engineers were killed and three others critically injured during a test on one of the plane’s fuel tanks.

“These companies are trying to start commercial operations before they really have a track record,” said Marco Caceres, a space industry analyst at the Teal Group, a consulting group based in Virginia. “None of these vehicles has really been tested that much. It is an open question whether the industry will be able to overcome one of these rockets blowing up with passengers on board.”

Laronde, the prospective Virgin Galactic passenger, said the accident was a reminder of the high risks involved in this type of adventure.

“It makes you stop and think for a minute,” Laronde said. “I’m certainly aware of the dangers, and I’ve thought about them, but I’ve never considered that I would not do it.”

My comment: Me neither!

Int’l space station ticket price climbs

By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 18, 8:13 PM ET

When it comes to complaining about poor exchange rates for the U.S. dollar, American tourists traveling to Europe have nothing on tourists headed into space. The cost of flying to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship has increased from $25 million earlier this year to $30 million. Trips planned in 2008 and 2009 will cost $40 million.

“It’s mostly because of the fallen dollar,” Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, said Wednesday. His company brokers the trips with Russia’s space agency.

A U.S. dollar currently is worth about 25 1/2 Russian rubles, compared with 32 rubles in 2002.

Five space tourists have paid $20 million to $25 million to visit the space station via the Soyuz vehicles through trips arranged by Space Adventures. The company announced Wednesday that two more Soyuz seats have been purchased for tourists to fly in 2008 and 2009.

Anderson said the space tourists flying in the two new seats likely would be an American and an Asian, but he offered no details. Prospective space tourists must put down a 20 percent deposit, pass physical examinations and later undergo training at a Russian space facility.

About a dozen prospective space tourists are in the process of reserving flights to the space station, even as the number of available seats on the three-man Soyuz vehicles is likely to diminish after space shuttles are grounded in 2010.

NASA is going to rely on the Soyuz vehicles to deliver astronauts to the space station between the end of the shuttle program in 2010 and the expected first manned flight in 2015 of the next-generation spacecraft, Orion, which NASA hopes takes astronauts back to the moon by 2020. Additionally, the three-member space station crew, consisting of U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, is expected to double in size in 2009.

“We’re certainly working out ways to get more seats,” Anderson said. “With the competition at that point, it becomes more difficult.”

On the Net:

Space Adventures at http://www.spaceadventures.com

The European aerospace giant EADS is going into the space tourism business.

Its Astrium division says it will build a space plane capable of carrying fare-paying passengers on a sub-orbital ride more than 100km above the planet.

The vehicle, which will take off from a normal airport, will give the tourists a three-to-five-minute experience of weightlessness at the top of its climb.

Tickets are expected to cost up to 200,000 euros ($266,500 US), with flights likely to begin in 2012.

“We believe it is the will of human beings to visit space and we have to give them the possibility to do that,” said Francois Auque, the CEO of Astrium.

“Astrium is by far the largest space company in Europe, so we are very knowledgeable in all these matters. We believe our concept is extremely safe, extremely comfortable and cost effective,” he told BBC News.

EADS Astrium is the company that builds the Ariane rocket, which lofts most of the world’s commercial satellites. Its space jet is a very different concept, however.

The front end of a full-scale model was unveiled at a publicity event in Paris on Wednesday. From a certain angle, the vehicle resembles an ordinary executive aircraft – but its engineers claim it is in fact “revolutionary”.

The production model will use normal jet engines to take off and climb to 12km. From there, a rocket engine will kick the vehicle straight up, taking it beyond 60km in just 80 seconds. By the time the rocket shuts down, the craft should have sufficient velocity to carry it above 100km – into space.

As the plane then begins to fall back to Earth, the pilot will use small thrusters to control its altitude, guiding the vehicle into the atmosphere from where it will use its jet engines again to return to the airport.

The total journey time will be about one-and-a-half hours.

Astrium says there will be room for four passengers on each mission. Towards the top of the climb, these individuals will be able to float free in the cabin and look through large windows at the planet below.

Astrium is proposing a different technical solution to the one being pursued by airline boss Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic enterprise.

Branson’s operation – timed to start about 2009 – is basing its vehicles on the record-breaking SpaceShipOne rocket plane which became the first privately built craft to reach space in 2004.
SpaceShipOne had to be carried to a launch altitude by another vehicle before using rocket propulsion; and on its return from space, glided to its home runway. Astrium says its decision to go with a one-stage concept was driven by safety and economic considerations.

The Australian Marc Newson was employed to design the space plane’s interior. He said he had put great emphasis on the seats – which he describes as “hi-tech hammocks” – and the windows to maximise the flight experience.

“The windows are very similar to a civilian jet airliner but they’re about 30% bigger; but more importantly, there’re 15 windows and only four passengers, so there’re are plenty of opportunities to float around the interior of this cabin and take different views of space, the stars, the Moon, and the Earth,” Mr Newson explained.

“It will be amazing. You’ll actually be outside the Earth’s atmosphere; you’ll be able to see Earth as a spherical object and everything else around you will be black. There must be millions of people who have dreamt about this since they were little kids,” he told the BBC.

EADS Astrium says its space jet project is likely to cost a billion euros to develop. It will be looking for financial and industrial partners over the next year. It says that if development work starts in 2008, the first commercial flights could be made in 2012.

“The development of a new vehicle able to operate in altitudes between aircraft (20km) and below satellites (200km) could well be a precursor for rapid transport, point-to-point vehicles, or quick access to space,” Astrium said in a statement.

“Its development will contribute to maintaining and even enhancing European competencies in core technologies for space transportation.”

Billionaire has spacesuit, will travel
Software whiz ecstatic about preparations for orbital trip in April
By Tariq Malik
Feb 23, 2007

U.S. entrepreneur Charles Simonyi has a brand new suit, and it comes with a pretty sweet ride.

The Hungary-born American software developer is ecstatic about his new Russian-built Sokol spacesuit, a must-have item for his planned April 7 launch toward the international space station.

“Just being in my own spacesuit that I will be able to keep after the flight was really an incredible experience,” Simonyi, 58, said this week as he headed from Moscow to Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training center to complete his preflight training.

Simonyi is paying more than $20 million to visit the ISS under a deal brokered with the Russian Federal Space Agency by the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures. He will become the fifth paying visitor to the ISS when he launches aboard a Russian-built Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft with two professional cosmonauts — part of the station’s Expedition 15 crew — on 10-day spaceflight to the orbital laboratory.

He is documenting his spaceflight on his Web site, http://www.charlesinspace.com, with blogs, images, videos and a recently added children’s section — dubbed Kids’ Space — to share his station-bound experience. (Simonyi’s initials Ch. S. personalize his Sokol spacesuit, and apparently can also stand for “clean spacesuit” in Russian, he writes).

“I have to say that my hopes are more than fulfilled, both in terms of the training and in terms of what I can communicate,” Simonyi, a former Microsoft software developer and co-founder of Intentional Software Corp., told Space.com in a telephone interview. (Microsoft and NBC Universal are partners in the MSNBC.com joint venture.)

Reaching space has been a lifelong ambition for Simonyi, an experienced aircraft pilot who, at age 13, represented his native Hungary as a Junior Cosmonaut on a trip to Moscow in 1963.

“It has been an amazing journey,” said Simonyi, who plans to participate in a series of biomedical experiments during his upcoming spaceflight.

Simonyi is returning to Star City after a successful round of winter survival training, in which he and other cosmonauts tested their wits and learned the Russian equivalent of “Mayday, Mayday” (“Terpim bedstvye,” or “We are suffering a disaster,” he writes).

“They brought us into the forest where we had to live for two days and nights using only equipment that we found in the spacecraft,” Simonyi said, “such as parachutes, nylon and parachute lines and seat liners.”

Simonyi also spent two hours tied fast to the customized seat liner while clad in his spacesuit, and is gearing up to test the spacesuit in a vacuum chamber to measure its integrity.

“It will be an interesting experience,” Simonyi said of the test. “If anything goes wrong, it will be a disaster.”

But Simonyi remains steadfast in what he deems the most challenging chore of preflight training: taking a spin on a revolving chair designed to help prepare future fliers for the initial space sickness experienced in a weightless environment.

“It was just unpleasant,” he told reporters this week. “I will probably have to do more of it to train myself against space sickness.”

Simonyi said he plans to perform additional weightlessness training aboard a Russian aircraft and participate in a series of integrated simulations to rehearse in-flight activities.

A high point in Simonyi’s preflight training came from the guidance he’s received from Bertalan Farkas, a cosmonaut who became the first Hungarian in space in 1980 during an eight-day Soyuz mission.

“We turned out to be about the same age, and we grew up at the same time, and now he’s helping me tremendously with the preparations for the spaceflight,” Simonyi said.

Simonyi is also looking ahead to after his coming spaceflight, when he hopes to continue to share his experiences — not to mention his Sokol spacesuit — to help bolster interest and support in private human spaceflight.

“I think that it will definitely be on loan to some museum,” Simonyi said of his spacesuit. “At the same time, I’d like to retain it for its sentimental value and, from time to time, try it on.”

© 2007 http://www.space.com. All rights reserved.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17298809/wid/11915829?GT1=9033

“Humans must colonize other planets,” says Stephen Hawkings, and I believe him. I found it interesting that he shares my same fascination with wanting to go to outer space. I hope that Branson will find a way to accommodate him. Hawkings’ research is ground breaking information and will one day lead to the innovation that allows us to get to other planets, the least we can do now is get him to space. I have posted the article that I getting this information (from http://www.cnn.com) below.

Hawking: Humans must colonize other planets
http://www.cnn.com

Humans must colonize planets in other solar systems traveling there using “Star Trek”-style propulsion or face extinction, renowned British cosmologist Stephen Hawking said on Thursday.

Referring to complex theories and the speed of light, Hawking, the wheel-chair bound Cambridge University physicist, told BBC radio that theoretical advances could revolutionize the velocity of space travel and make such colonies possible.

“Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out,” said Professor Hawking, who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer.

“But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe,” said Hawking, who was due to receive the world’s oldest award for scientific achievement, the Copley medal, from Britain’s Royal Society on Thursday.

Previous winners include Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin.

In order to survive, humanity would have to venture off to other hospitable planets orbiting another star, but conventional chemical fuel rockets that took man to the moon on the Apollo mission would take 50,000 years to travel there, he said.

Hawking, a 64-year-old father of three who rarely gives interviews and who wrote the best-selling “A Brief History of Time”, suggested propulsion like that used by the fictional starship Enterprise “to boldly go where no man has gone before” could help solve the problem.

“Science fiction has developed the idea of warp drive, which takes you instantly to your destination,” said.

“Unfortunately, this would violate the scientific law which says that nothing can travel faster than light.”

However, by using “matter/antimatter annihilation”, velocities just below the speed of light could be reached, making it possible to reach the next star in about six years.

“It wouldn’t seem so long for those on board,” he said.

The scientist revealed he also wanted to try out space travel himself, albeit by more conventional means.

“I am not afraid of death but I’m in no hurry to die. My next goal is to go into space,” said Hawking.

And referring to the British entrepreneur and Virgin tycoon who has set up a travel agency to take private individuals on space flights from 2008, Hawking said: “Maybe Richard Branson will help me.”

© 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.

Out of the 43 things I want to do, this ‘thing’ I feel is the most farfetched, but none-the-less obtainable. There was another article on http://www.cnn.com about Branson’s space tourism company.

$200,000 is a lot of money, but in the grand scheme of things it is not that much.

Rich Chinese buying tickets to space
http://www.cnn.com

A Chinese businessman has paid $200,000 to become his country’s first space tourist, hoping for lift-off some time by the end of 2008.

The man, from eastern China’s Zhejiang province, is among a first batch of 100 passengers who will board Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwoe for the suborbital trip, said Shanghai-based Rupert Hoogewerf, who serves as an adviser to the firm.

About 20 men and three women from China – out of some 65,000 people globally – had applied for tickets, and a female Chinese space traveler had still to be selected, he added.

Hoogewerf, who publishes an annual list of China’s wealthiest people, said the man was under 40 and that he had asked for his identity to be kept secret.

Virgin Galactic, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, competes with Space Adventures travel agency to take private individuals to space. Its space trip will last 2.5 hours.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket-powered vehicle will carry six passengers and two pilots for a 2.5-hour weekly flight, the company says.

It plans to launch its flights from spaceports in California and New Mexico, while Space Adventures has announced plans to build spaceports in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

So far, four private tourists have visited space, paying around $20 million each.

A U.S. businessman in 2001 became the world’s first paying space tourist, traveling to the orbiting space station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. He spent a week in orbit.

© 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.

Check out this article I came across. I don’t think it is going to be as hard to get to outer space as I once thought…

Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo interior
Craft designed to seat eight people — six passengers and two pilots
By Tariq Malik
http://www.space.com

Updated: 10:21 a.m. PT Sept 28, 2006

NEW YORK – Future passengers aboard Virgin Galactic spaceliners can look forward to cushioned reclining seats and lots of windows during suborbital flights aboard SpaceShipTwo, a concept interior of which was unveiled by British entrepreneur Richard Branson Thursday.

“It won’t be much different than this,” Branson told reporters here at Wired Magazine’s NextFest forum. “It’s strange to think that in 12 months we’ll be unveiling the actual plane, and then test flights will commence right after that.”

Virgin Galactic’s spaceliners will be specially outfitted SpaceShipTwo vehicles built by Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites and veteran aerospace designer Burt Rutan. The new spacecraft, designed specifically for space tourism, will be three times the size of Rutan’s SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for privately developed piloted spacecraft capable of reaching suborbital space twice in two weeks.

The air-launched SpaceShipTwo is designed to seat eight people — six passengers and two pilots — and be hauled into launch position by WhiteKnightTwo, a massive carrier craft currently under construction by Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn said.

For an initial ticket price of $200,000, Virgin Galactic passengers will buy a 2.5-hour flight aboard SpaceShipTwo and launch from an altitude of about 60,000 feet (18,288 meters), while buckled safely in seats that recline flat after reaching suborbital space. A flight animation depicted passengers clad in their own personal spacesuits as they reached a maximum altitude of at least 68 miles (110 kilometers).

While the spacesuit designs are not yet final, they will likely be equipped with personal data and image recorders to add to SpaceShipTwo’s in-cabin cameras, Whitehorn said.

“If it was ready next week, I’d be there,” Alan Watts, who has traded in 2 million Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer miles for a ride on SpaceShipTwo, told Space.com. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceliners are slated to roll out and begin test flights by early 2008 in Mojave, with future operational spaceflights to be staged from New Mexico’s Spaceport America beginning in 2009.

“SpaceShipTwo is obviously designed as a commercial vehicle,” Whitehorn said, adding that the vehicle will have a double-skinned hull as added safety for the passengers and pilots inside its pressurized cabin.

Passengers will have several minutes of weightlessness during the spaceflight, and then have about 40 seconds to return to their seats, Whitehorn said, adding that the floor of SpaceShipTwo is also designed to be used during landing if space fliers fail to reach their spots in time.

The WhiteKnightTwo carrier vehicle – which will be larger than a Boeing 757 jet — will sport the same interior as SpaceShipTwo, and will be used for to help train passengers during a three-day orientation period before launch, Virgin Galactic officials said.

Stephen Attenborough, chief of astronaut relations for Virgin Galactic, told Space.com that having two SpaceShipTwo pilots not only allows for redundancy, but frees one pilot to handle any passenger emergencies or issues that pop up during flight.

Whitehorn and Branson both said that SpaceShipTwo will rely on a new type of hybrid rocket fuel, one slightly different from the rubber and nitrous oxide mixture that propelled SpaceShipOne into suborbital space three times in 2004.

The WhiteKnightTwo will also rely on new, cleaner-burning jet engines and bear a close resemblance to the Virgin GlobalFlyer aircraft, which was also built by Rutan’s Scaled Composites and flew around the world without refueling in 2005.

“If you’re going to build a spaceship, you’ve got to build a green spaceship,” Branson said, adding that the carbon dioxide output from a single spaceflight is on par with that attributed to a business-class seat aboard commercial aircraft.

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