space travel update

Stephen Hawking made his much publicized zero gravity airplane flight Thursday. The flight prompts me to look at the current price scoresheet for privatized space travel and related zero gravity experiences:

Orbital flight around the moon (Space Adventures as early as 2009, but I doubt it): approximately 1 week experience for $100 million.

Visit to the International Space Station (Space Adventures): approximately 1 week experience for $20-30 million.

Sub-orbital flight (e.g. SpaceShipTwo from Virgin Galactic): approximately 1 hour experience with 7-10 minutes of weightlessness for $200,000.

Parabolic airplane flight (Zero G): a couple hour experience with combined weightlessness of 3-5 minutes for $3,500.


So, for the time being the parabolic flight is the only experience even relatively within reach of the average human. However, just like computers and flat screen televisions keep getting cheaper, this will too. If the current pace of privatized space travel is maintained, I can confidently conclude that I will someday travel to space.