Space Adventures undercuts Virgin Galactic -- announces $100,000 space tourism flight
By Laura June 
posted May 13th 2010 11:02AM
posted May 13th 2010 11:02AM
Space tourism is something we here at Engadget have always been pretty fond of in theory -- it is the final frontier, after all -- but the prohibitive (exorbitant, extravagant, ridiculous) $200,000 price tag on a Virgin Galactic flight pretty much ended any small hopes we ever harbored of getting on one. So, would a reduction of about 50 percent be enough to get us to sign up? That's the question that Virginia-based Space Adventures is asking. The company's just announced it's going to offer flights into suborbital space through an exclusive agreement with Armadillo Aerospace, which is currently developing the rockets for the journeys. A trip with Space Adventures is set to cost just $102,000. We still can't afford it, but we're certainly glad to see the prices fall from insane to outrageous. So, what about you? Are you in?
Start the Engadget Space Fund and I'm sure people will pitch in to send one of you to the moon. Who should we choose gang? :)
@Plazmic Flame
lets send gizmodo on a space flight to the sun :)
@Plazmic Flame We should let Apple and Adobe decide...
@Plazmic Flame
I have a friend who sells tickets to space and a couple days ago she said within the next couple years it'll drop to $50,000. Even better!
@forrealdood
At that rate, they could have a space shuttle at every county fair in under a century! :O
(Just imagine the carny ejecting small children out of that ride, population crisis: Solved.)
@Mmmm Donuts
Requiem by Robert Heinlein
@Plazmic Flame If I can take me Droid with me..I will be fine :)
@Plazmic Flame
So for $206,000 and 5 minutes in the bathroom I can join the 5 mile high club with a woman of my choice? Time to start saving up!
@snuffdapunk - Try 62 mile high club ;)
i'm happy as long as the in-flight meals is from armadillo willy's!
@benderfender Virgin is a UK-based company - what you have just asked for will mean a completely different type of meal if you fly with them.
Only if Jean-Luc Picard is the captain
@southern78
You may want to consider that every single ship he's been but in charge ended up blown away, crash-landed or severely crippled.
And that in his last assignment (The Enterprise-E) he tries to activate self-destruct on EVERY mission.
Just sayin'. Anyway, chances are you'd probably end up with the second in command in charge trying to do some crazy stunt with a psychologist at the helm, while the captain was somewhere else beating the crap out some weird looking guy.
But what the hell, everything will be fine as long as you remember not to wear a yellow-ish shirt. And make sure your seat is in the rear section, in case they decide to ram the ship into something.
Wow..count me in...Only 2 years of work and no spending anything until then to go!
@DoctarPeppar Peasant.
@fpad77 More like slave
@fpad77
So you have 100K to spend at any given time...cool!
@DoctarPeppar. Whine all you want slave, you aren't getting a pay rise
Yeah, $100k? Count me in. I should have it saved up by the time they are in the full swing of doing flights.
I'll wait for easyRocket, thanks.
@xbit HAHAHHAHA! Well said...where the hell is Stelios on this one?!
Lol, that picture is great
That's 204 iPads!
@Atkins Yet not half as douchie as just 1.
Just what you want in experimental space flight... Price wars!?
EasyJet will be in on it soon. Flight £2.50. Early boarding £7.50. luggage £29.00. Sandwich £12. Spacesuit £42.020.
@prowlmedia Sport equipment - surf and 700m of rope - free.
I was wondering what to do with that extra $100,000 in my wallet, now i know..
edit: oops, nvm it's 102, 000, i only have a 100k.
@Nimer55
There is no edit feature in Engadget's commenting system. So, you had an opportunity to just correct the original statement, which wasn't funny in the first place.
@KennyB123
okay...
wow this is great! now im actually going to have extra money i didn't think id have after the flight!
o wait...that's thousand. one hundred....thousand...
...oh
You failed to mention that Armadillo Aerospace is the company that John Carmack (founder of iD software and creator of Doom) set up and has pretty much self funded so far.
well, at least we know john carmack's car collection will continue to expand. gratz to him and armadillo on the deal
Do you really want to fly with the "budget" space airline? :)
@One Love
just because something is more expensive, doesn't mean it's better.
you only have to look at Apples hardware to understand that.
@stoney1973 Sure, but a macbook won't kill you in seconds if there's a crack in the hull.
@gargle just kill your unborn babies that reside in your testies
@One Love
Well, not really that much different than flying a regular budget airline. A fiery wreck is a fiery wreck, no matter how high up you were planning to go. At least the 'space ship' fiery wreck should be more spectacular.
@One Love
check this out:
http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/index.php
"Our mission is very simple. We are working towards launching a human being into space. This is a non-profit suborbital space endeavor, based entirely on sponsors and volunteers."
Herro, Welcome to Schitty Wok, er Schitty Space Lines... Can't wait till we get the real budget private Space Lines!
@Fox Dude
+1 for South Park reference :D
I'd rather have a few NFA weapons and the ammo to feed them.
wait til they start terra-forming other planets........they'll be shipping you off-planet without your permission
now I'll be able to go on 2 space flights for the original price of 1! Although I'd rather spend my money on a nice, relaxing Rekall trip.
Is that one way?
lets meet some martian babes then :)
It can't actually be much FUN. I'd think that the training (required even for tourists) and the flight itself would be pretty uncomfortable. The views are likely to be brief and not nearly as good as you can get watching IMAX movies on your large-screen TV. So, the only benefit is bragging rights, and if it's cheap enough that "anyone" can do it, then even those vanish.
Zhuzhu the TV Tourist
@Zhuzhu - Armadillo Aerospace is John Carmack's company. If it looks like it's going to be boring he'll probably make some monsters / zombies jump out at you when you're up there.
@FireMonkey
A vacuum-exploded space tourist body floating by the window should do the trick.
@Zhuzhu
Actually you don't explode in a vacuum (unless you breathed in deeply before you got thrown out), you only start to bloat once you hit the 1,5 minute mark. If you don't fill your lungs with air before you get sucked into space, you can live for up to two minutes in space.
space is overrated -.-