Space Tourism Training

If you thought
the 840-something vaccinations needed to go certain places in Asia and Africa was outrageous enough to keep you from
ever stepping foot on either continent or far too draining to endure before reaching the final destination imagine the
training involved before going into orbit. Seems many of you are rather excited and hopeful about touring the galaxy
one day when, say Richard
Branson’s Virgin Galactic
drops prices to those similar to Southwest flights. That’s awesome! Rock on and good luck
to you.

My question now is are you cut out for it? You couldn’t have thought they were just going to seat you
in a shuttle and fling you out into the cosmos? Did you? I’m sure we mentioned this CNET news piece somewhere in the past,
but as a refresher I thought to mention again, just in case. For those seriously considering travel to space now is the
to start training and for that you may wish to travel to Singapore first.

A while
back Space Adventures announced its plans to build a space station on the small island nation with a Singapore-based
consortium. The space port will offer suborbital flights, operate astronaut training facilities and will also be an
educational visiting center for the public. Prospective space tourists can get a glimpse and understanding of the
forces experienced during the rocket launch. Medical and physical ability will be tested
and includes a simulated water landing. This is just the tip of the comet people, to see more of what’s require
check out this great photo gallery found on
CNET
.

Q&A Richard Branson

Alas, I wish I could say that we did this Q&A with
British gazzillionaire
and airline/music/cell phone/etc. magnate Richard Branson, but the Budget travel folks got
to him first. Still, the brief interview sheds some light on Branson’s habits and peccadilloes that will satisfy
fawning Branson-watchers like myself. Branson is a big-time traveler, even if he doesn’t quite travel like the rest of
us…that is, he’s more likely than not sipping champagne aboard his private jet. But we do learn than Sir Richard
not only likes the work of Bill Bryson (and who doesn’t?) but is also planning to be one of the first passengers aboard
his own Virgin Galactic flight into space. I plan to make the trip into space as well…probably paying for it with the
first million I make blogging.