Have you ever heard of a company called Orbital Horizon?
Well now you have, because they are a Durban-based space tourism agent who can now offer tickets for a flight aboard a new suborbital spaceship... at a mere R 626 000 per ticket!
Space tourism agent? First time I have heard that term... :)
According to the owner of the company, the tickets are "affordable" when compared to the likes of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which offers tickets at R 2 million each.
Sure, that's affordable - I mean it's chump change, if you can spare an odd million here and there... :)
The spaceship (named the "Lynx" - approximately the size of a small aircraft) will look something like this:
Signing up to become a space traveller will mean first having to head to the USA for medical testing, before a week long training session in Phoenix, Arizona.
Then it's back to sunny South Africa where you will await a call to confirm your flight date.
Hmmmm... so what if you do the testing and training and then they just never call you back...? ;)
Well assuming that they do call back and book your flight, liftoff will happen from somewhere the USA, and within 3 minutes of liftoff you will be in suborbital space...
What can one expect when in suborbital space?
Well this quote from Wikipedia gives us a good idea of just what it might be like...:
"The spacecraft will probably shut off its engines well before reaching maximum altitude, and then coast up to its highest point. During a few minutes, from the point when the engines are shut off to the point where the atmosphere begins to slow down the downward acceleration, the passengers will experience weightlessness."
So if you are one of the elite who has a Ferrari FF parked in your garage, right next your Veyron and your Lamborghini Aventador (your daily runabout), then maybe this is just the thing for you...
Currently there is not a whole lot happening over at the company website, but there are contact details there if you seriously want to get in touch, or maybe just want to find out more info.
...and if you are one of the lucky ones who gets to go into space - fly (and land) safely, and have the time of your life!
Well now you have, because they are a Durban-based space tourism agent who can now offer tickets for a flight aboard a new suborbital spaceship... at a mere R 626 000 per ticket!
Space tourism agent? First time I have heard that term... :)
According to the owner of the company, the tickets are "affordable" when compared to the likes of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which offers tickets at R 2 million each.
Sure, that's affordable - I mean it's chump change, if you can spare an odd million here and there... :)
The spaceship (named the "Lynx" - approximately the size of a small aircraft) will look something like this:
Signing up to become a space traveller will mean first having to head to the USA for medical testing, before a week long training session in Phoenix, Arizona.
Then it's back to sunny South Africa where you will await a call to confirm your flight date.
Hmmmm... so what if you do the testing and training and then they just never call you back...? ;)
Well assuming that they do call back and book your flight, liftoff will happen from somewhere the USA, and within 3 minutes of liftoff you will be in suborbital space...
What can one expect when in suborbital space?
Well this quote from Wikipedia gives us a good idea of just what it might be like...:
"The spacecraft will probably shut off its engines well before reaching maximum altitude, and then coast up to its highest point. During a few minutes, from the point when the engines are shut off to the point where the atmosphere begins to slow down the downward acceleration, the passengers will experience weightlessness."
So if you are one of the elite who has a Ferrari FF parked in your garage, right next your Veyron and your Lamborghini Aventador (your daily runabout), then maybe this is just the thing for you...
Currently there is not a whole lot happening over at the company website, but there are contact details there if you seriously want to get in touch, or maybe just want to find out more info.
...and if you are one of the lucky ones who gets to go into space - fly (and land) safely, and have the time of your life!
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