Space Tourism News - Daily!

Until recently, to Search Space, one had to be lucky enough to be an astronaut or a cosmonaut. But thanks to Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur who already owns an empire of travel businesses, visiting space will soon be within the reach of anyone with a spare $200,000. Virgin Galactic realistically hopes to be allowing mass space travel by the year 2010. People will fly on tiny rocket-type vehicles which will turn into planes when they are outside the atmosphere. For the first time ever, to search space will not mean to become an astronaut.

 

Currently, any astronauts take on months, if not years of training, to prepare for a trip into space. But new technology is being developed all of the time to make this intense preparation not so necessary in order to search space.

 

So, ordinary (if rich) people are now looking at a realistic prospect of entering space and searching it themselves. And what person cannot say that as a child they dreamed of being a spaceman? Certainly those who still harbour a desire to blast off must somewhere, deep inside them, believe they will be able to search space and find something no-one else has found. A new planet, or a life form, perhaps even an undiscovered star. Maybe for some, the desire to see the earth from such a magnificent distance is stronger than the desire to search space. Maybe, for these people, they just want to be where few others have ventured. And, of course, with an estimated cost of $200,000, being an astronaut is definitely a status symbol, and a way of flashing your wealth.

But to search space, one must be aware of the dangers. Man was not projected into space until Yuri Gagarin took off in 1961 - a relatively short period of time in terms of human history. Richard Branson is proud of the fact that it is advances in safety which has made space tourism a realistic idea, but for some, the fates that have befallen those who have gone before will never be far from their minds.

Many astronauts and cosmonauts have blasted off in their shuttles, either to search space for a specific object or to search space for the undiscovered. But, as the Challenger and Columbia disasters showed, travelling into the unknown can be fatal. In fact, such was the seriousness of the Columbia disaster in 2003, that all space travel was suspended for two years. Man took off again to search space in 2005, but the problems have not yet been ironed out altogether.
Anyone who can say they have searched space will always have something unique about them. But for many, the idea is as unrealistic as a bungee jump into a lion's den. In years to come it may be that we have all been to outer space, but until massive inroads are made into cost and ease of use, to search space remains the province of the highly trained, and, if Richard Branson is to be believed, the very rich.

About the Author

Kerry Bradburn is a marketing consultant who writes articles for popular wesites such as Search Space.

www.space-search.co.uk