Spacewalks for sale! Spacewalks for sale! Get yer spacewalks here!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Space tourists offered 'holy grail of spaceflight'

You don't have to be an astronaut anymore to experience walking in space. All you need is $35 million and the willingness to risk your life.

A private Virginia firm that already has sent three super-rich men to the international space station for $20 million each announced Friday it would offer an even rarer adventure: A stroll outside the space station for an extra $15 million.

"It is the holy grail of spaceflight; it's something very few of the astronauts and cosmonauts have done," said Eric Anderson, chief executive of Space Adventures Ltd.

Added former NASA spacewalker Kathy Thornton, who is on the firm's advisory board: "It's just sort of the feeling of freedom, that you are your own satellite."

With the blessing of the Russian space agency, Space Adventures is arranging for the first spacewalking tourist to go into orbit in about a year or so, Anderson said.

The trip would involve a launch in a Soyuz capsule, an eight-day stay aboard the international space station and a 90-minute spacewalk in a Russian spacesuit. An extra month would be added to the six-month cosmonaut training.

Captain Flak Paperpants, a Wand of Wonder contributing blogger, well known space-enthusiast and complete friggin' geekball, was quoted by WoW as saying "JESUS H. FUCKME, someone get me 35 million smackeroons... STAT!"