5 minute space trip for $102k...

[johnny861]

Imagine sitting 100km above Earth, the blackness of the universe outside contrasting with the blue horizon as you hover in weightlessness.

Your seat is in a rocket and your objective is to enjoy five minutes in outer space, just above Earth's atmosphere.

Sound like a fantasy? It is actually a real possibility for South Africans who are keen and have about R635 000 to fork out on their dream. Bookings for seats on a sub-orbital space flight are now open - despite the fact that the trips are still far off the horizon.

As the race to commercialise space travel picks up, so agencies around the world are now taking bookings for those keen to be among the first to experience space. And one such agency has been appointed in South Africa.

'It's a total bargain'
Spin Experience, South Africa's first space-experience company, based in cushy offices at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg, has been contracted to take bookings for space flights.

They are offering ticketed rides on sub-orbital space flights, with the all-inclusive package costing $102 000.

While the sub-orbital space flight is the ultimate experience, those who cannot afford it can settle for a zero-gravity parabolic flight at Russia's Star City. The four-day adventure includes zero-gravity training; the actual experience, which will be recorded; a celebratory dinner; and sightseeing. The estimated price is $7 000 or about R45 000.

But it is the space flight that is the jewel experience on offer.

Spaceports are under construction in several countries, to be available by 2006/7.

The planned four-day package includes specialised training, and the traveller gets his or her own fitted spacesuit.

The trip is the same as the first successful attempt by South African-born pilot Mike Melvill, who took the controls of SpaceShipOne on the first commercial space flight last month.

His flight heralded the start of the final race by 23 companies - including Melvill's Scaled Composites - competing to become the first commercial space flight operators now that space travel has been deregulated and Nasa no longer has a monopoly on the industry.

Those who do the mission automatically become astronauts if they launched from the United States or Britain.

Those who fly from Russia are named cosmonauts and those who launch in China are taikonauts.

Simone Farinha and Nathan Reddy, co-directors of Spin Experience, are enthusiastic about booking South Africans among the first group of people to travel on space, and already have one client on board.

"It's a total bargain if you consider that Mark Shuttleworth paid about $22-million for his space trip," Farinha commented, adding that Shuttleworth's "First African in Space" mission on the Soyuz spacecraft was somewhat longer than the proposed all-in-all 90-minute suborbital trip.

Spin Experience's partner in the United States is the same company that sent Shuttleworth into space.

According to Farinha, a third space tourist, Dr Greg Olsen - another space traveller with strong links to South Africa - has signed up to do the mission. Olsen, who reportedly studied physics at the University of Port Elizabeth, owns a vineyard in Franschhoek and travels to South Africa three to four times a year.

Those ready to sign up to take part in the space age can find out more by visiting www.spinexperience.co.za or phone 011-880-4478.