Countdown Begins for Budget Space Tourism Lift Off on Skyscanner Site
Released
on: April 02, 2010, 12:18 am
Author: Skyscanner Ltd
Industry: Travel
While excitement is building about the increasingly imminent
prospect of space tourism following Virgin Galactic’s successful test
flights in March, the prohibitive $200,000 price tag makes this a final
frontier too far for many would be astronauts, so today Skyscanner
announces the launch of cheap flights to space.
“Virgin Galactic is doing a brilliant job of creating excitement and raising
awareness that space tourism is a real possibility, but this is not a one-rocket
space race by any means and space travel doesn’t have to cost the Earth,” said
Skyscanner co-founder Barry Smith. “The ‘no frills’ model has transformed air travel
over the last decade, so it’s no surprise a low-cost contender has emerged to make
this market more accessible to all.”
Low cost space travel venture Copenhagen Suborbitals – based in Denmark – is taking
a no-frills approach in order to bring the cost of space travel back down to Earth.
Prices per trip have not been finalized but are anticipated to substantially
undercut the Virgin Galactic fare and half price discounts may be offered for one
way tickets. There will be no in-flight service – partly because the spacecraft can
actually only accommodate one person – no baggage allowance and no seating –
passengers will have to stand throughout the duration of the space flight, although‘buttock and armpit support’ will be available.
“We’d like to call this company the Ryanair of space travel but we can’t – you don’t
have to pay extra for check-in baggage. In fact you can’t take any baggage at all,”
said Barry Smith.
He concludes: “It’s one small click for the user, but one giant leap for us as a
company, opening up opportunities for our business to boldly go into some exciting
new market niches. It’s even possible we may see some interest from forlorn former
Concorde passengers who miss the view on flights
from New York to London. Although the flights are currently starting from a
barge in the Baltic Sea, and I’m not actually sure where they’re landing, so that
may not be ideal for them.”
Copenhagen Suborbitals is planning a test flight in June of this year, powering a
spacecraft into a suborbital trajectory. Budding astronauts can follow progress as
the company launches a series of rockets to validate and test performance before
launching humans into space.
About Skyscanner.com
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Press contact:
Scot Carlson
www.skyscanner.com
scotc@skyscanner.net
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