Space Vacation

Hello, Acme travel agency? Yes, I'd like to book a space cruise.

Maybe it's not so far off. Virgin Group claimed yesterday that it is on track to launch the first tourist space flights in 2008 and has sold tickets to 150 waiting passengers.

A single space flight ticket will cost you $200,000.

The flights themselves are sub-orbital, and the space plane will be reusable. The plane, dubbed White Knight One, achieves altitude while attached to a larger carrier vehicle, White Knight Two, which detaches at 50,000 feet. WK 1 then accelerates into sub-orbital space, where it will remain for 15 minutes, five of which are weightless.

I wonder if I can come up with a quarter-million dollars in two years...