Here comes another player in the sub-orbital space flight market with the collaboration between Florida based company Xtraordinary Adventures and Rocketship Tours.

Reservations can now be made on the Lynx, XCOR Aerospace´s newest rocket propelled suborbital craft, for the princely (and lowest to date) sum of $95,000 - $7,000 cheaper than with Space Adventure and $100,000 less than Virgin Galactic.


Paying your deposit of $20,000 gets you a four day training course to prepare you, including experiencing hypoxia in an altitude chamber, an aerobic flight, and classroom training - pay the balance and away you can go from 2012. 


Still a very expensive and relatively short 'roller-coaster ride' to the edge of Space, but for the thrill seekers and adrenalin junkies out there with a pocketful of spare cash, I am sure it will be a must!

Back on one of my current favourite topics of space tourism, I saw this video today released by the company Space Adventures and couldn't resist posting it here! If you remember from a previous blog, this is the company that has gone into partnership with Armadillo Aerospace to develop a craft for sub-orbital flights priced at  $102,000 - around half the cost of a flight with Virgin Galactic.

Not sure what their time scale is though as at the moment I'm not sure if they have come up yet with a full-scale prototype, but Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson seems to be a man prepared to put his money where his mouth is and so I have no doubt that they will come up with the goods.

Do you think I should I put my $4,000 deposit down yet?!

Can you remember those days not so many decades ago when to fly from one country to another was only something for the fabulously wealthy, whereas nowadays anyone with a few hundred pounds to spare can fly half way across Europe? 

Likewise with the advent of manned space flight in the 1960’s it seemed an opportunity for only the very select few.

And then came along the birth of Space Tourism with the first paying passenger in 2001, Californian businessman Dennis Tito who went to the International Space Station via a Russian Soyuz capsule at a cost of $20 million (£14 million) – still an out of this world price tag out of the reach of most mere mortals.

However, don’t despair all you would be astronauts as the price war may well just be starting!

Currently you can book your place for a flight into space with Virgin Galactic on Space Ship Two at a cost of $200,000. But you might want to wait a while before putting down your deposit, as just announced this week is a joint venture between Space Adventures and Armadillo Aerospace to provide suborbital space flights at half the price – just $102,000.

The Armadillo rocket ship which will take off vertically from a spaceport in the United States, will take passengers to a height of over 62 miles (100 kilometers), to the point where space begins. With engines then shut down, the ‘astronauts’ onboard will experience up to five minutes of weightlessness and also get to gaze out into the blackness of Space and to see the Earth's horizon below.

Just how low the cost of a suborbital flight will go is anyone’s guess – perhaps no lower for a while yet until more players are in the market, but I think I will hold on to my hard earned money for a while and wait to see what happens!

From September 2010, students at a British university in the city of Sunderland, County Durham will be able to study a module on Space Law as part of their undergraduate programme.

The module will cover the militarisation, privatisation and commercialisation of space, as well as legal aspects relating to the purchase of lunar land and problems of property damage due to space debris.

With increased numbers of countries participating in Space flight, particularly with the growing interest from commercial ventures, and the advent of Space tourism there are many new areas for the legal profession  to chew on. 

One small example relates to millionaire space tourist Richard Garriott who in 1993 purchased the Lunokhod 2 rover from the Russians, and that is currently parked up on the moon's surface after breaking down there nearly 37 years ago. The rover and it's tracks were recently spotted and photographed by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Mr Garriott commented not long ago on his Facebook site (all be-it very tongue in cheek) that as the only private individual to own something situated on the moon's soil he must at least have some claim to the land beneath it!

Perhaps he has a point . . . . . perhaps not. Not being a lawyer I couldn't say, however it is absolutely food for thought and just one of many new dilemmas that will present themselves over the coming years to the world of international law.   

This week saw the successful inaugural 'captive carry' flight of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two from Mojave air & spaceport, and I have to say the pictures looked impressive. 

On a beautiful day with clear blue skies, this strange looking craft, complete with the suspended space ship that will soon carry tourists to the edge of Space, soared effortlessly into the Californian skies and filled my heart with a yearning to be there too.

With a price tag of $200,000 to book a place on a flight and a waiting list already of around two years, I will need to pay my deposit soon! So any millionaires out there that would like to be accompanied on the flight by their very own Space Doctor, please get in touch soon!! 

Hawthorne, California, USA based private Space firm SpaceX has pledged to compete with the Russian Soyuz price tag of around $50 million for taking astronauts on the return trip to the International Space Station, after the shuttles are put into retirement later this year.

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell told a US Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation that his company can "guarantee crew flights to the ISS for less than $50 million a seat".

With launch costs estimated to be around $400 million a time and maximum crew space of 7 fully loaded, the figures don't look like they add up at the moment. However, reliance on just one means of transporting crew to the ISS is not ideal, so this option I am sure will be welcomed.

According to sources in Russia today, the Russian space program will resume taking tourists back to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2012. 

Flights were suspended last year (the last person Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil, going up in September 2009) due to the number of crew on the ISS doubling from 3 to 6 meaning an extra work-load for the Soyuz spacecraft - a work-load that is set to increase later this year when the US shuttles are moth-balled and put into retirement.

The Russians however, are set to build another Soyuz spacecraft this year which should be completed by 2012, bringing the number to 5 in total. Four will be used to transport astronauts at a cost to NASA of $51 million per astronaut, and the 5th will be chartered by US based Space Adventures and used for space tourism.

Extremely deep pockets required though as the fare price paid by Guy Laliberte of $45 million is very likely to go up - so billionaires only need apply!