Singapore picked as launch pad for space trips
Feb 16, 2006, 2:44 GMT
Singapore - Singapore has been picked as the site of an integrated
port which will offer space flights as well as astronaut training,
The Straits Times reported on Thursday.
Space Adventures, the US-based company behind the voyages of the
world's first three space tourists, selected the city-state ahead
of several US states, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Dubai.
When ready, the space port will be used to stage commercial
sub-orbital flights in which the space vehicle exits the Earth's
atmosphere at about 100 kilometres above ground.
Passengers can expect to pay about 102,000 US dollars for about
five minutes of weightlessness, a view of the curvature of the
Earth and the darkness of space.
The company told the newspaper it will train travellers at the
astronaut training centre.
Space Adventures was set up in 1998. The company was behind the
voyages of the first three space tourists: American Dennis Tito in
2001, South African Mark Shuttleworth in 2002, and American Greg
Olsen in October.
They paid 20 million U.S. dollars each for one-week stays on the
International Space Station.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
