Gleefully read this article today -- my big and as yet unrealized dream has been to fly into space. Would you do it if you could just buy an affordable ticket and go into space? (You'd have to get in line behind me if the cost would not be my firstborn and all my life's savings)

Private Rocket Recovers, Enters Space
SpaceShipOne Climbs to Unofficial Altitude 62 Miles on Quest for $10 Million Prize
By JOHN ANTCZAK, AP
MOJAVE, Calif. (Sept. 29) - After recovering from a wild corkscrew roll on its ascent, the first private manned rocket soared to space and returned safely to Earth on Wednesday in a bid to earn a $10 million prize.
SpaceShipOne must cross the threshold of space twice within 14 days to claim the $10 million Ansari X Prize. SpaceshipOne, with astronaut Michael Melvill at the controls, climbed to an unofficial altitude of more than 330,000 feet, about 2,000 feet above its target altitude of 62 miles. Dick Rutan, whose brother Burt Rutan helped design the ship, said radar indicated that the plane reached its target.
''They made the altitude,'' he said.Confirmation on whether it reached the desired altitude was expected later in the day.
The specially designed jet with SpaceShipOne under its belly took off at 7:12 a.m. from the airport in the desert north of Los Angeles and began its climb. The ship dropped away from its mother ship above Mojave Airport, fired its rocket and pulled into a vertical climb. The ship rolled more than two dozen times before steadying to its target altitude. It then began a gliding descent and landed at 8:33 a.m.
A crowd of VIPs watched from below the airport control tower, while journalists watched from bleachers along the runway. Spectators, some wrapped in blankets to ward off the early morning chills, erupted in cheers as the spacecraft and its chase planes taxied down the runway.
Airline mogul Richard Branson announced his group would offer passenger flights aboard rockets in 2007, with fares starting at $208,000.

Among those watching Wednesday's launch was Adam Smith, 14, of Vienna, Va., who said he's had an interest in space ''as far back as I can remember.'' He earned $1,000 this summer toward a down payment to a company called Space Adventures, which is taking reservations for future space travel.

''It was just one of those things - I want to do this,'' the 9th-grader said.

The X Prize rules require that the two flights happen within 14 days. Before Wednesday's takeoff, SpaceShipOne's creators had ambitiously set the second flight for next Monday - well before the 14-day deadline.

SpaceShipOne was required to fly with a pilot and the equivalent weight of two passengers aboard, in accordance with rules requiring X Prize contenders to be capable of carrying three people.

Maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan, with more than $20 million from Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, secretly developed SpaceShipOne and is well ahead of two dozen teams building other X Prize contenders around the world.

The Ansari X Prize was modeled after the $25,000 prize that Charles Lindbergh won in his Spirit of St. Louis for the first solo New York-to-Paris flight across the Atlantic in 1927.

The St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation, noting the rapid development of air travel after Lindbergh's feat, hopes to inspire an era of space tourism in which spaceflight is not just the domain of government agencies such as NASA.

Even before Wednesday's flight, Richard Branson, the airline mogul and adventurer, announced in London on Monday that his Virgin Group plans to offer passenger flight into space aboard rockets based on SpaceShipOne by 2007.

Branson believes he will fly some 3,000 people into space in the first five years that his ''Virgin Galactic'' space line is operating.

 

Oh yeah ... in a New York minute.

I'm not exactly sure what that time span really is, but I've been led to believe that it's pretty quick.

 

I'd be there in a New York Minute. Go ahead, take my left arm, take my right n*t, I'm ready to go right now.

If I ever had the opportunity to ride in Space Ship One (or the Virgin Airways equivelant) or on the Space Shuttle, or some other space vehicle, you wouldn't even have to ask...

I was watching the flight on the web today, and when the vehicle began to roll my heart jumped into my throat. It's not supposed to do that, and all I could imagine was it beginning to tumble. There's no escape system for the pilot at that altitude/speed, he has to ride it out no matter what.

I'm majorly impressed with Rutan's accomplishment, and if he and Virgin are successful in developing a follow-on craft, we just "might" be taking that ride in a few years (at about $200K a pop ).

 

Not me. I'm holding out until they can take me to another planet. I want to go to an inhabitable planet that I can claim in the name of the Legal Bill Empire. The planet must be inhabited with intelligent, friendly space monkeys, or their equivalent, who will be happy to act as my servants.

 

Please refer to post about me trying anything once before I kick the proverbial bucket. I think it would be cool to view the earth from a different perspective. All the astronauts seem to come back with this look of awe on their faces.

P.S.: Could someone/anyone who lives near TC take him some tranquilizers (enough to last until Fall Colors) please .
And wouldn't you look kinda funny trying to swim with one arm and ....nevermind.

 

I'd be there in a heart beat - probably get myself strapped in before the astronauts...I love all things space, even Bill's planet of slave monkeys.

 

Who needs tranqs??? I'm high on life!!!

I'll just jump in the pool and bob like a fishing bobber.

 

 

I'm in! The price is just a little on the high side

 

For those that do want to do this, then next year at Six Flags NJ, you should try the new coaster. 0 - 128 mph in 3.5 sec. and climbs to 456 ft.

Six Flags Coaster