EADS to offer tourist spacecraft by 2012

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Getting a closer look at the stars may soon stop being the privilege of a few select billionaires, with the space arm of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company saying Wednesday it plans to have a space tourist plane in operation by 2012.

The vessel, which EADS plans to start developing next year, would provide tourists with a 90-minute suborbital flight, including three minutes of weightlessness at an altitude of more than 100 kilometres (62 miles), Francois Auque, the president of EADS Astrium, told reporters.

The fare could be "around 150,000 to 200,000 euros (199,000-265,000 dollars) for this suborbital flight, while it costs 25 million dollars for the few space tourists flying in the narrow capsule of the Russian rocket Soyuz," Auque...