Spaceheads all over were excited over the unveiling of SpaceShipTwo this week. Virgin Galactic zillionaire Richard Branson is looking to turn space tourism into a leisure activity for the wealthy, whereas now it is simply a leisure activity for fellow zillionaires.
Perhaps because I am neck-deep in edits for The Next Continent, about a private mission to the moon funded by an leisure firm, but I’m getting excited. I don’t even like having to take the BART to work each day, and nothing is more infuriating to me than an airport layover (well, except for a canceled flight), but I want to go. I wanted to get into space as a kid, but like many such kids I just ended up working in the science fiction field instead. Three hundred people have signed up for the $200,000 space jaunt already, but I guess I’ll have to wait till SpaceShipFive or something and a price that’s the space-equivalent to those $99 super-saver flights to Florida. Space by 2020, that’s for me!
I just hope there’s no layover in the stratosphere.
