Google's Brin Books a Space Flight

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday June 11, 2008 @05:04AM from the i-can-see-my-house-from-here dept.

coondoggie writes "Google largely conquered the Earth — now it is taking aim at space. At least co-founder Sergei Brin is. Brin today said he put down $5 million toward a flight to the International Space Station in 2011. Brin's space travel will be brokered by Space Adventures, the space outfit that sent billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi to the station in 2007. Computer game developer (and son of a former NASA astronaut) Richard Garriott is currently planning a mission to the ISS in October 2008. Garriott is paying at least $30 million to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship according to Space Adventures." Make sure to wave when you are over Michigan, man. I'll be the one on my lawn, green with envy.

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Re:Risky business. by ELProphet · 2008-06-11 07:25 · Score: 4, Interesting

Most interesting in that line of statistics: no human has died outside the confines of Earth's atmosphere. Apollo 1 was a fire on the pad, Challenger hadn't crossed 50 miles, and Columbia was under 50 miles. The Russian space program has similar circumstances. 18 didn't walk out of the craft alive, but all 420 who have crossed into space have made it back inside the atmosphere.