Space charter with a $1.76 million price tag
By Paul Johnson on Jan 08, 2007 in British Virgin Islands, Caribbean, Regions, Space Travel, Speciality Travel
The famous luxury retailer Neiman Marcus is selling a space trip in their catalogue that includes the opportunity to experience weightlessness along with a spectacular view of Earth. Their space charter for you and five of your best friends will set you back $1.76 million! The fee includes training, medical assessments and a ride on the Virgin Galactic spaceship. There’s even an after-party at Necker Island (Sir Richard Branson’s 74-acre private island retreat in the Caribbean) thrown in.
That would be a heck of a trip. Hopefully the price will come down eventually and allow prols like me to go :)
Well, I’ve been around a bit but not into space (yet!). We found an attraction in a shopping mall in Hong Kong that looked like it would be fun. (I’m sure they must offer this elsewhere too, although I’ve never seen it.)
You got harnessed in to a contraption of pulleys and wires that would let you experience weightlessness and do a ‘space walk’ of a few metres. I thought that this would be great and went for it.
I had (stupidly) thought that I’d bounce my way easily to the end, but it wasn’t like that at all. Being less than eight stone I couldn’t get any traction at all and spent most of the time floundering about – doing a sort of doggy paddle in mid-air. Then I had a fit of the giggles which didn’t help. It was fun. Try it if you get the chance.