Join the 13-mile high club in a MiG

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Incredible Adventures wants to push you through the sound barrier. Step into a MiG-29 and prepare to be thrust past Mach 1 in the fighter jet that caused Rocky to fight Drago. Or, find your way to the edge of space in a MiG-31. Find your way to Russia to get started, and then leave the Earth behind.

To pass the speed of sound, Incredible Adventures takes you to Nizhny and gives you a choice: the legendary MiG-29 or the newer MiG-31. The company has an arrangement with the Nizhny Novgorod Sokol Aircraft Building Plant, making the whole “MiGs over Moscow” program possible. The people who supply fighter jets to more than 30 countries, of course, take quality seriously. After all, they needed to develop the goods to end democracy. So, they’ll do everything possible to make sure your day at the airbase is an incredible adventure.

If new heights matter more to you than outpacing the words coming out of your mouth, check out the “Edge of Space” program. Join the “13-mile high” club in a MiG-31 with one of Russia’s premier fighter pilots.

When you touch down, lament the loss of your wingman, jump on a couch and tell people not to take psychiatric medicines.

Virgin Galactic says thanks, but no thanks to space porn movie offer

by Scott Carmichael on

Virgin Galactic, the first commercial space “airline” has reportedly declined an offer of $1 Million, to allow the production of the worlds first galactic porn movie.

Regular flights on Virgin Galactic cost $200,000 each, so the offer of $1 Million seems quite generous, but Virgin Galactic politely declined.

Space flights are scheduled to start in late 2009 or early 2010. Virgin plan to offer the trips using 2 aircraft flying out of the Mojave desert. Once the program gets underway, spacecraft will take off from a new space port currently under construction in La Cruces, NM.

Of course, since this is news from Virgin, who are operated by what can only be described as the worlds most experienced marketing guru, the whole thing could also be another of their brilliant gimmicks to generate some free PR. And it seems to be working quite well for them.

If you have $200,000, and would like to fly into space (without taking your clothes off for a movie), then you can hand over a $20,000 deposit and book a trip, there are however already 280 people ahead of you, so it may take a while to get a spot.


These women did not film galactic porn — but they did do some other naughty things. Click the pictures to find out what they did.

Flight attendant wins trip into space — on Rocketplane!

by Grant Martin on

I thought that Rocketplane was a show on the cartoon network until I read an article this morning reporting that a French Flight Attendant won a trip into sub-orbit with the galactic airline.

First, about the flight attendant: Mathilde Epron was working her daily flight schedule when she grabbed a quick Kit Kat snack, tossed the wrapper in the garbage and went on about her normal duties. Suddenly, struck with a feeling that she should have checked the wrapper, she went back to the trash two hours later, dug out the refuse lo and behold, won one of the first trips into space on fledgling space tourism company, Rocketplane.

Secondly, Virgin Galactic has competition? Where did Rocketplane come from? Tell us more about yourselves and your crazy moniker, Rocketplane, we’re delightfully curious.

Apparently, Ms. Epron is scheduled to get four days of astronaut training at Rocketplanes headquarters in Oklahoma then will be on one of the first flights scheduled in 2010.

Only a shade behind Virgin Galactic, which plans to unveil its White Knight Two later this month and carry passengers in 2009.

If Rocketplace sticks to its guns and testing goes well, we could have an interesting commercial space competition in the next ten years. Maybe all of this competition will drive the price of a flight down from 200-250k down to 100k. Time to start saving!

Other tales from the skies
Amazing and insane stories from a real-life flight attendant and co-pilot

The commercial space race heats up

by Grant Martin on


Remember Virgin Galactic? It’s Richard Branson’s pet project to create the first ever commercial service to fly passengers into a lower orbit, tool around in zero gravity for a little while and float back to the surface. They teamed up with Scaled Composites, the group who built the spacecraft that won the Ansari X prize, to create SpaceShipTwo, which by 2009 should soon be able to carry six passengers and two pilots out into space. One ticket to 68 miles above sea level? $200,000.

It looks like they’ve also got some competition. Xcor, a California based aerospace company, revealed plans for a new sub-orbital aircraft earlier today dubbed the Lynx. It’s significantly smaller than SpaceShipTwo and only able to accommodate one passenger plus one pilot, but it’s a form factor that Xcor thinks will be better suitable to the market. Perhaps the fact that it takes off solo from an airstrip (opposed to the dual aircraft design of SpaceShipTwo) and only goes about half the altitude of its competitor will make it a less expensive flight.

It should be two years before the Lynx is off the ground, and Xcor has still to find a commercial partner to market and operate the flights. But with a little bit of extra competition in the market, maybe the galactic experience will soon be affordable to your average millionaire instead of your average billionaire.

Mommy, what does space smell like?

by Jerry Guo on

Now you know. According to a NASA flight engineer on a International Space Station mission, space smells like “an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit.” Or more succinctly, “pleasant sweet-smelling welding fumes.”

Yums. Another useless (but quite interesting) piece of trivia to know.

Of course, there’s always somebody to burst your bubble. One theory is the smell has something to do with LCVG and PLSS, which are responsible for regulating and radiating heat away form the user (respectively). Out in the space vacuum, these chemicals may get vaporized, and hence, that “sweet-smelling welding fume.”

Then, there’s the alternative explanation. “That’s God’s crotch you’re smelling.”