Friday, April 29, 2011

Cruise to the Moon: $150 Million

Pay up and go around the moon and back. [Link]
Space Adventures arranges flights for its clients aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, workhorse vehicles that have been plying the heavens since the 1960s. [Photos: The First Space Tourists]
On the circumlunar trip, customers will travel aboard a Soyuz around the far side of the moon and back -- a journey of seven or eight days, Shelley said. The spacecraft won't land on the lunar surface, but passengers will still get an experience that has been limited so far to a few dozen astronauts with NASA's Apollo program. [Giant Leaps: Top Milestones of Human Spaceflight]
"You're going to get to within 100 kilometers [62 miles] of the moon's surface, so you're going to get a really close-up view of the moon and that incredible Earthrise as well," Shelley told SPACE.com. "There are only 24 people who have seen that." [Gallery: Our Changing Moon]
Early into this long trek, the Soyuz will meet up in low-Earth orbit with a separately launched unmanned rocket. This booster will contain a propulsion system, helping the spacecraft get all the way to the moon.
The Soyuz may meet up with the rocket and head toward the moon immediately, or it may stop at the International Space Station before the rocket rendezvous, according to Shelley.

No comments:

Post a Comment