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Window or Aisle?

Posted by michael on from the down-in-birdland-yeah dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes "Forget Tito. Forget Shuttleworth. Private space travel is now a reality, now that eBay is accepting bids for travel to the International Space Station. I consider this a milestone for space travel, now that the average citizen-next-door can bid for a ticket as easily as buying, er, crap on eBay." Actually it appears that this is just the pre-flight stuff required prior to a trip - Note: Soyuz tickets sold separately, may involve a small added expense, if you get my drift. The real milestone is when tickets are listed on Travelocity. JFK->ISS, non-stop, no smoking, snack only.

4 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. My favorite is USAIR's tactic by sowalsky · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My favorite is how USAIR (US Airways) has already started advertising trips to space. You can either win a trip to space or redeem 10,000,000 frequent flier miles for one. I can't wait to see where this goes!

    1. Re:My favorite is USAIR's tactic by Rob.Mathers · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Never mind the space flight (which is actually a suborbital flight), I would go for the flight in a MiG-25! It says you go as high as 85000' and as fast as mach 2.

      Only 275,000 miles + $8,000 :D

      /me pictures himself in Top Gun

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    2. Re:My favorite is USAIR's tactic by SEWilco · · Score: 3, Interesting
      PanAm accepted 90,000 reservations for Moon trips in the 1960s.

      "The real milestone is when tickets are listed on Travelocity. JFK->ISS, non-stop, no smoking, snack only."
      Yes, but that's only a milestone. I'd prefer a 3-week cruise with transfer at Goddard Station, view of ISS Museum, 1950 DA mining facility and stop at Disney L-5 enroute to Tycho City Hilton. If I were younger I'd make reservations at Tycho Flight School, but instead I'll play with Hub Wings at DL5.
  2. Hayden Planetarium's list? by dpbsmith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I was a kid, I signed my name and address in a book at t the Hayden Planetarium in New York indicating that I was interested in being a passenger on the first commercial passenger flight into space (or possibly to the Moon, I forget which).

    I wonder if they still have that list? I wonder if they maintain it? I wonder what the names on a mailing list of "middle-aged geeks interested in being space tourists" are worth?

    I wonder if I need to contact them and ask to have my name removed?

    I wonder what sort of junk mail I can expect to get if I don't?

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