Would you guys spend 10 grand for a couple of minutes in space.
Trips into space will cost £7,000 by 2030
The cost of taking a holiday in space will fall to as little as £7,000 over the next two decades, a veteran Nasa astronaut has predicted.
Donald Thomas, who flew three missions in the space shuttle Columbia and one in Discovery, said that as companies such as Virgin Galactic and SpaceX piled into space tourism they would drive prices down to the point where a trip into orbit could become affordable for many families.
He envisages tourists travelling to the International Space Station as a matter of course by the 2030s. “I expect that in the next couple of years Virgin Galactic will begin their sub-orbital space excursions, allowing tourists the chance to see the Earth from 85 miles up, viewing the curvature of the Earth and the total blackness of the sky in space,” he said.
“Prices for these trips are approximately $220,000 [£155,000]. While still expensive, the trips are much more affordable than paying the Russians $65 million for a trip to the ISS. I also expect that SpaceX, Boeing and a few other companies will follow when tourist trips to and from the ISS are firmly established.
“It is difficult to predict future prices for these trips, but I would anticipate within a decade or two prices will drop to the $10,000 to $20,000 range.”
Dr Thomas, who spent a total of 44 days in space during the mid-1990s and is now an ambassador for Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre, was optimistic about the prospects for Sir Richard Branson’s project.
Virgin Galactic has suffered a string of delays and accidents since it was founded in 2004, including the mid-air disintegration of its experimental spacecraft VSS Enterprise in 2014, killing Michael Alsbury, the co-pilot.
Dr Thomas was more sanguine than many of the company’s critics. “I believe they are just a few years away from beginning their commercial space flights,” he said.
“Right now they are redesigning their vehicles after their accident a year or two ago. Once the needed redesigns are completed, tested, and the safety of the system verified, commercial flights will commence.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/a ... 712348.ece
