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6 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Commercial Space Travel

This article is more than 8 years old.

There's a new space race afoot: As NASA steps to the side in terms of manned space travel, a slew of companies are now working to make space flight attainable—and perhaps even affordable—for everyday customers. As we enter the age when just about anybody (at least anybody with the right bank account) can fancy themselves an astronaut, I decided to call up the experts and grill them for their favorite facts and trivia about this brave new world.

1) It's Closer Than You Think

Space itself is closer than you think--the Karman line is just 100 kilomters away. That's closer than a trip to the Hamptons from Manhattan.

2) Not All Space Is The Same

"I think a lot of people think space is space, and if you get there you’re done. But to get to space in a useful way you basically have to spend a whole of ton of money on a big rocket and a lot of fuel. I always found it fascinating that it takes about 100 times more energy to reach orbit than to go suborbital a la Virgin Galactic. Suborbital is mostly useful for certain kinds of scientific applications and for visitors to say they've been to space, in that they've crossed the Karman line, if only for a few minutes." —Jeff Wise, science writer and author of Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger.

3) It's Goal Is To Be Far More Reusable Than The Shuttle Ever Was

The original Shuttle was supposed to be truly reusable (faster cheaper better). It wasn't: it had extremely toxic (deathly toxic, at one part per billion or so for hydrazine) fuel that slowed takeoff and landing. The Shuttle had to be disassembled down to its nuts and bolts after every single flight. Today, SpaceX, XCOR, and others are aiming for true reusability as envisioned by the original Shuttle developers, and are very close to achieving it. According to an XCOR rep, the new wave of spacecraft are pegged to fly four times per day rather than one time each year.

Vehicles such as this one from XCOR are designed to carry people into space (photo: XCOR)

4) You Can Drink On Your Way Up

"You can have a cocktail on board the World View spacecraft! Due to the technology we're using, there is no zero G period of flight, so for the entire five hour trip—an hour and a half up, two hours at the edge of space, and an hour and a half back down—you won't spill the drink in your hand." - Jane Poynter, cofounder of World View, which is developing balloon-based spacecrafts.

5) It's Fast, And It's Direct

According to an XCOR rep, in some cases, as with the XCOR Lynx spacecraft, you're supersonic 60 seconds after engine light and in suborbital space in under five minutes. Some companies' flights should even take off straight from a runway, just like a jet.

6) It Probably Costs Less Than You Think—And Could Eventually Be Far More Common

It has a price tag, but the price tag is likely less than you think. While Dennis Tito, Richard Garriott, and (almost) Lance Bass dropped about $30 million to fly to the space station, you can now have your own taste of space by dropping $100k for a thirty-minute trip, according to XCOR. It could even be common in the coming decade: Spacelines are planning to operate anywhere from two to four flights per day, both to suborbital space and to the International Space Station. There are also dozens of planned spaceport locations around the globe including ones in Sweden, Curaçao, Mojave/Los Angeles, Texas, Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Dubai, and South Korea.

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