Tuesday 2 June 2009

No longer the final frontier

There was a time when every little boy wanted to be a spaceman. When space travel was in its infancy the idea of going to the moon fired a whole generation. It was the 60s and everything seemed possible.
Space travel no longer has the same mystique for the young for some reason, which is a shame because going into orbit has never been more achievable.
Where once only a chosen few could dream of space travel, now it is open to almost all thanks to a company offering a training regimen for would-be space tourists that the proprietor describes as "Space Camp on steroids". The center opened for business May 1 at the Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport in Tampa Bay, Fla.
Aurora Aerospace offers enhanced gravity and microgravity aircraft flights and other astronaut training services for paying customers, who would then be prepared for more expensive sub-orbital or even orbital flights.
The complete program includes an aerobatic ride in an L-39 trainer, a two-seat aircraft built in the Czech Republic that is the same type of aircraft used by Russian cosmonauts in their training. The aircraft performs various aerobatic and high G-force maneuvers.
Okay, so it's not quite Neil Armstrong and walking on the moon, but right at the moment, it's the next best thing.

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