How close can I get to space for a reasonable price?
Recently there's been news about a company who will be offering balloon rides to the stratosphere for $125,000 (USD). Blue Origin hasn't announced the ticket prices for their flights yet, but the first passenger ticket auctioned off at $28 million, so the consumer price will presumably be similarly expensive.
Going to space sound great, but those prices are not attainable for the average traveler. However, I'd still be interested to know how close I actually can get to space on a tourist ticket. What's the highest I can fly for tickets less than $1,000 USD? How about less than $10,000?
Best Answer
Virgin Galactic received approval to carry passengers from the FAA recently, although they are probably some way away from selling tickets.
For a long time the highest-altitude relatively mainstream option was the Concorde, which cruised at around 56,000 ft/17.1 km on transatlantic flights; the vast majority of conventional aircraft fly transatlantic between about 29,000 and 41,000 ft for comparison. This is rather considerably short of outer space, conventionally defined as 100 km (328,084 ft), but high enough for the sky to darken and to see the curvature of the earth.
The Concorde was forced into retirement in 2003, but various large business jets like the Citation X+ and LearJet 75 are advertised with a maximum altitude of 51,000 ft, and the view from 50,000 ft is still pretty cool. They don't normally operate at this altitude of course, so it would take some legwork to charter, but it's something definitely in the realm of possibility for a resourceful person in an advanced economy.
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How can I go to space for cheap?
The most affordable way to pay to get to space would be appear to be via a company called Space Perspective, which plans to launch a pressurized capsule propelled by a high-performance space balloon.How much does it cost for a civilian to go to space?
Flights to orbit \u2014 a much higher altitude than Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic's trips go \u2014 are far more expensive. Three passengers to the International Space Station next year are paying $55 million each for their seats on a SpaceX rocket, bought through the company Axiom Space. Dig deeper into the moment.How much does it cost to go to space 2021?
For a suborbital trip on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin's New Shepard, seats typically cost $250,000 to $500,000. Flights beyond that to actual orbit\u2014a much higher altitude\u2014are far more expensive, fetching more than $50 million per seat.Can you buy a ticket to space?
They cost $450,000. On Tuesday, the aerospace company announced plans to sell tickets to the general public to snag a seat for a future spaceflight. Reservations open up Feb. 16 and will cost $450,000.How Close Are We To Space Tourism?
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