For years we confined in the realistic idea that only astronauts (and those who have the millions to spend and join the astronauts) could leave the earth’s surface and explore the universe outside. Well we’ve heard about boy band NSync member Lance Bass’ trip to the outer space several years ago, but we knew such opportunity was overly exclusive. But just recently, Boeing, the company that has been providing airlines, the vehicles that transport people all over the world, promised to finally be able to transport people outside—literally—the world.
The company that started putting up trips for private individuals into the International Space Station (ISS) is Space Adventures. Both Boeing and Space Adventures have kept mum about how much the trip to low Earth orbit will cost and when the pilot trip will officially happen. As of now, Boeing is already said to be collaborating with Bigelow Aerospace in building a commercial space station program that will be created later between 2011 and 2020.
The passenger flights will happen on commercial tours to low earth orbit on board the Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft. Besides people with the budget (and we may expect way higher flight rates) for the trip, the special rides will be offered to companies, non-profit agencies and federal bureaus aside from NASA. The aircraft called “Space Taxi” — which can accommodate up to seven passengers — is expected to be ready for operation come 2015.
This announcement made by Boeing is actually the first from one of the few companies that offer the same service. Space Adventures has collaborated with Russian’s space agency to be able to offer outer space rides. Those trips’ price started from a whooping $ 20 million, but since then, the price has climbed up to (a much more whooping) $ 40 million—for each passenger.
Aside from Boeing and Space Adventures, there are also other companies that talk about taking passengers to outside the earth orbit, such as SpaceX. SpaceX is supposed to focus on delivering cargo loads to the ISS, but its Dragon capsule might be also able to carry passengers to experience outer space scenery.
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Tags: boeing, space adventures, voyage on outerspace, voyage on outerspace 2015
