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The G Spot For Space Tourists

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Slowly but surely in 2015, the private space movement gained ground. The tourism aspect is taking longer than many of us want (I am a ticketholder on Virgin Galactic), but this is rocket science. It’s complicated and it's dangerous.

Orbital ATK, after a spectacular launch explosion in 2014, this December ferried cargo to ISS for the first time since the accident. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' stealthy outfit, sent its New Shepard vehicle unmanned into suborbital space in November and brought it back intact.

But maybe most impressive was Elon Musk’s SpaceX. In a test last month, its Falcon 9 booster rocket landed safely on a pad near where it had launched from after flying to a height of over 200 kilometers – a reusability concept once thought impossible that could drastically reduce costs per flight.

Virgin Galactic is making headway, too. After its own crippling incident destroyed SpaceShipTwo, Richard Branson’s outfit has nearly completed the SS2 rebuild and plans to begin supersonic testing again this year. An NTSB investigation found that the 2014 accident was pilot error, not from any structural faults.

As ticketholders wait for flights to begin, many are training. The NASTAR Center in Southampton, PA, helps pilots and astronauts handle the kind of G forces experienced during flight. The first part of its two-day program (price: $3,000) involves classroom instruction coupled with G-force testing in the facility’s large centrifuge. On day two groups simulate, with color visuals, full-up spaceflights.

NASTAR has history. In the Cold War space race, John Glenn had trained nearby at the U.S. Navy’s old Johnsville Human Centrifuge, which shut down in 1996. This replacement was built close by because of the strength and depth of underground bedrock, key to anchoring a device so sensitive to movement.

Quickly our group discovered that G's come in different shades. "Gz" is force through the top of your head down (think vertical), while "Gx" is force perpendicular to your chest (think horizontal). A space flight subjects fliers to both during takeoff and reentry. One G is equivalent to your body weight.

Our first runs tested response to sustained Gz - at 2.2 G’s and 3.5 G’s - for durations of 15 seconds. To handle that, we practiced clenching our glute, abdomen and leg muscles to keep blood circulating to our brains. We also employed the “hook" maneuver to force air into our lungs via a pressure breathing mountaineers use. Both procedures helped avoid "graying out" - losing color and peripheral vision.

Next up were Gx forces. For these, we practiced breathing slowly and shallowly, as if through a straw, because of all the weight on our chests. Again, we started at a lower level, 3.5 G’s, and ramped up, to 6 G’s, for durations of 15 seconds. After the day's initial runs, all participants agreed that the experience was more than they had bargained for.

On day two, we experienced full-up simulation flights. Each lasted about five minutes – the approximate time we would be in space with Virgin Galactic – first at a 50% intensity, then at 100%.

After being jettisoned from VG’s WhiteKnightTwo mothership, I found myself instinctively doing hook breathing and tensing muscles as the rocket motor fired and the craft accelerated to over three times the speed of sound. Then came utter peacefulness upon engine burnout, with the craft still climbing in a gentle arc and reaching an apogee of around 370,000 feet.

Sure enough, there was Earth in the portal window, beautifully curved with a thin, electric-blue atmosphere. Then suddenly I was dropping fast on the altimeter, but with no sensation. As the air thickened, though, the G force kicked in and before long it was up to six.

Two things immediately struck me about the centrifuge training. One, VG should mandate it for all ticketholders. I have done my share of unsettling things as an adventure journalist, but never have I felt six times my body weight crushing my chest for sustained durations. It was disorienting.

And two, we will be in space for all of five minutes with VG. My ticket cost $200,000, or about $40,000 per minute. Had I experienced those G's for the first time on a real rocket ride, I probably would have been scared out of my mind. That would not be good for the enjoyment of my own flight, nor for my five fellow fliers.

(Editor’s Note: For tourists who want a gentler adventure, World View Experience is planning pressurized balloon rides to just over 100,000 feet. Price: $75,000. You won’t be in space, but you will get space-like views of Earth for about one-third of VG’s current going rate of $250,000. The company says commercial rides could commence in 2017.)