Las Vegas Space Flights
The zero gravity Las Vegas experience is now available for those who wish to feel weightless. A specially designed Boeing 727 will perform effects of a real space flight including flying smaller parabolas that recreate lunar gravity.
The common belief holds that just about anything goes in Las Vegas. Its marketing campaign does nothing to dispel this notion, and the continuing popularity of Hunter S. Thompson’s famed novel Fear and Loathing certainly helps in this regard. If you can dream it up, there is probably someone in the world that can get it for you – and a lot of these people can be found in Vegas.
Weightless flight is an experience that few have tried, but those who have call it amazing and life-changing. Martha Stewart, Billy Bush, Burt Rutan, Miles O’Brien, and cast members of “The Apprentice,” and “The Biggest Loser” are just a few notable passengers who’ve flown with ZERO-G and proclaimed it to be one of the most thrilling experiences of their lives.
Video game programmer and designer, Richard Garriott, set to become the sixth space tourist in October, said he was excited to be following in the path of his NASA astronaut father Owen Garriott, who flew in 1973 and 1983.
Even the lanky Feige, younger than many of the gray-haired conference participants, had to give up his dream of being an astronaut because he exceeds the height requirement. This turned his attention to work in the private sector and he is nearly breathless with excitement when talking about what could be a near-future moon tourism industry.
Las Vegas, a town built on fulfilling impulses of its guests, the opportunity to float weightlessly in a simulated orbit stands out from night clubbing, gambling, race car driving and every other visceral experience on sale in Southern Nevada.
A hotel in space
The key to Bigelow’s success–or failure–is cost. It’s always been his intention to bring tight-fisted business principles to the aerospace industry, and his inflatable habitat technology seems to epitomize that approach. Bigelow told us two years ago that if he “only” cuts the cost of space habitat in half, he will have failed. His inflatable modules need to achieve a quantum leap in cost reduction if they are going to make the impact Bigelow fully expects.
No Cheap Thrill
Thrill-seeking, though, is not cheap. Along with a strong stomach, riders need deep pockets to get on board this plane. Each passenger will shell out $3,500, which includes a flight suit, complimentary merchandise, awards, a post-event party, photos and a DVD of the flight, according to the company’s promotional materials.
Tourists in space
Space Adventures made headlines in 2001 when client Dennis Tito became the world’s first privately funded space flight participant.
