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Rocketplane Offers '07 Space Flight for $99,500

Posted on: Tuesday, 5 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

In preparing for your next suborbital space flight, there's no time like the present. Reservations now are being accepted for Oklahoma's inaugural 2007 flight, and all for just $99,500.

Oklahoma-based Rocketplane Ltd. is developing a commercial space vehicle that will depart from the Oklahoma Spaceport in Burns Flat, taking travelers 100 kilometers above the Earth.

Rocketplane on Monday said it had signed a marketing agreement with Incredible Adventures, a Sarasota, Fla.-based company offering supersonic MiG flights. Officials at Incredible Adventures said suborbital space travelers will fly in the order in which they sign up.

We've been looking for a company capable of fulfilling the space dreams of our clients for more than a decade, said Jane Reifert, Incredible Adventures president. We're confident we've found that company in Rocketplane Limited Inc. I've met the engineers. I've seen their facilities. It takes a lot to impress me, but the Rocketplane team has.

Incredible Adventures has been selling space adventures since 1993, and offers hands-on training at Russia's Cosmonaut Training Center, zero-gravity flights in Moscow and Fort Lauderdale and high- altitude flights in Russia and South Africa.

Incredible Adventures is a world-renowned leader in marketing high-adventure programs, said George French, president and chief executive officer of Rocketplane. We have been very impressed with the quality of work they perform and look forward to a long and plentiful relationship.

Richard Branson's Virgin Group also will offer suborbital space travel in 2007. However, the three-hour trip will be a bit more pricey at $190,000.

Rocketplane XP Spaceplane is a four-seat, fighter-sized vehicle powered by two jet engines and a rocket engine, enabling it to reach suborbital space in a cost-effective manner. It is designed to operate from traditional airfields and within aviation rules and practices for experimental and commercial aircraft.

Similar to other airplanes, the Rocketplane XP will take off from a runway, travel into orbital space and return to Earth, landing on a runway. Last month, Spirit Wing Aviation, based at the Guthrie/ Edmond Regional Airport, contracted with Rocketplane Ltd. to modify the airframe for its spaceplane. While fabrication will be in Guthrie, assembly, tests and ongoing flight operations will take place in Burns Flat.

According to Guthrie city officials, demand for human space travel is emerging at a much greater pace than existing capabilities allow, which explains the typical $20 million price tag for such a trip from Russia.

While many speculate whether the folks at Rocketplane will be able to get their bird off the ground, others recently have proven that the mission can be accomplished. A rocket plane funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen took off from a desert runway in Mojave, Calif., Monday strapped to the belly of a carrier plane and was released at about 46,000 feet. Test pilot Brian Binnie fired its rockets to continue to the edge of space at three times the speed of sound. SpaceShipOne landed about 90 minutes after leaving the ground.

The SpaceShipOne team received a $10 million prize, awarded for the first privately built, manned rocket ship to fly in space twice in a two-week period. The prize is meant to encourage space tourism.

Allen also joined with Branson and Burt Rutan, aircraft designer, to form a company called Virgin Galactic to offer the aforementioned $190,000 flights into space. The first ship will be called VSS Enterprise. Virgin officials said it anticipated 3,000 passengers to sign up for the pilot program and expects to start accepting deposits for trips next year.

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