Where No Tourist has Gone Before
April 12, 2006
We at Cruise Network deeply feel that cruise vacations are the best types of vacations for many reasons: the all-inclusive prices, the chances they offer people to see so many places in such a relative short amount of time, the tons of onboard activities, and the pampering that passengers receive.
Yet, while being able to sail on a bright blue sea sparkling under the sun and see some of the most exotic places on earth is hard to beat, try floating weightless and peering down on earth itself. No, we're not talking about Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's rock climbing walls; we're talking about the next realm of vacationing: space tourism.
This isn't science fiction; it's happening now. Of course, it's not near as easy or economical as cruising (the margaritas in space aren't nearly as good as the ones on the beach, either), but there are actually more than a dozen companies are developing rocket planes to take ordinary (albeit extremely wealthy people) out of the atmosphere and into space. Several private companies are building prototypes and plan to test-fly them as early as next year. If all goes well, companies could be offering tourists cosmic vacations by 2008.
Still, for now, space tourism is not an option for most people; in fact, the price to get into space now makes the price tag of an all-inclusive World Cruise on a luxury ship seem down right cheap. Over the past few years, only three tourists have gotten the chance to go into space, and they each paid a reported $20 million to do it. They road aboard a Russian rocket to the orbiting international space station.
Still, prices for the next round of personal space flights aren't quite as high; a seat aboard one of the yet-to-be-built commercial spaceships will cost between $100,000 to $250,000. Not exactly spare change, but well shy of the $20 million that it costs now. But even if that price tag's doable, don't expect to be floating past Mars or Venus anytime soon.
The commercial spaceships under development now will only reach suborbital space, which is about 60 miles off the ground. Since the private spaceships will lack the speed to go into orbit around Earth, the flights are essentially up and down experiences; each will last about two hours with up to five minutes of weightlessness.
Before tourists can strap on their moon boots, several federal hurdles must be cleared. Federal regulations that will govern human space travel are expected to be wrapped up this summer. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta last month told a gathering of space entrepreneurs that the government would move quickly to grant space travel licenses to companies that can prove they can operate safely.
Still, while the space tourism may be part of the future, it's no doubt that cruising will too. Because as much as there is a fascination for seeing our planet from a distance, there's just as much allure to walking through the ruins of the ancient Acropolis, swimming in a Hawaiian lagoon, or taking an ice-breaker through the frigid waters of Antarctica. And those are activities that no space vacation will ever be able to provide.
You don't have to wait for the vacation of a lifetime. For cruise vacations on this planet at deals that are out of this world, call Cruise Network.
