Jump to content

1 post in this topic

Recommended Posts

Filed: Timeline
Posted

Just when you thought you heard it all...

Austrian Discount Supermarket Offers Sub-Orbital Flights

image-25739-galleryV9-djcd.jpg

The Austrian branch of discount supermarket chain Penny Markt has begun offering tickets for suborbital space flights. For €210,000, anyone can sign up, assuming they don't have claustrophobia. But ticket buyers beware. The first flight won't take place until 2011, if at all.

It's the kind of product warning one doesn't often see on the shelves at your local supermarket. Those with claustrophobia, motion sickness or asthma, reads the small print, should spend their money elsewhere. And at €209,555 ($313,955), the price tag too is a little out of the ordinary.

But the discount supermarket chain Penny Markt doesn't just sell groceries. As of Thursday, shoppers can pony up a small fortune for a trip into space. All inclusive.

Penny Markt, owned by the Germany-based REWE Group, is offering the space trips in cooperation with Rocketplane Global, a company based in Oklahoma. The package includes business-class flights to and from the launch pad, training, and a post trip party. The actual space flight lasts about one hour from take-off to landing, includes three to four minutes of weightlessness, and achieves a maximum altitude of 330,000 feet, according to the Rocketplane Web site. The spaceship is little more than a specially outfitted, six-seater airplane equipped with two turbojet engines and a rocket engine.

Something of a Mystery

Martin Fast, head of REWE Austria Touristik, insisted that the flights were "no marketing gag," in an interview with the Austrian daily Kurier. Still, the offer is meant to draw attention to Penny Markt's entry into the package tour business.

Just when Rocketplane might enter the space travel business, on the other hand, remains something of a mystery. The company has not yet carried out a single commercial suborbital flight and has been keeping a remarkably low profile during the economic crisis due to funding difficulties. At the 2009 Space Access Conference April, Charles Lauer, Rocketplane's Vice President of Business Development, admitted that the company needed more than $100 million of additional funding, according to MSNBC.

Notoriously Unreliable

A spokesman for Space Travellers, which sells tickets for Rocketplane's flights in Germany, told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the initial flight likely wouldn't take place before 2011, before adding that timelines in the commercial spaceflight business have proven notoriously unreliable.

All of which means that shoppers in Austria might want to wait awhile before rushing to their nearest Penny Markt to book a ticket to space. But if you do decide to reserve a ticket, head to your doctor first. Before getting on Rocketplane's spaceship, you have to submit an EKG.

 

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
- Back to Top -

Important Disclaimer: Please read carefully the Visajourney.com Terms of Service. If you do not agree to the Terms of Service you should not access or view any page (including this page) on VisaJourney.com. Answers and comments provided on Visajourney.com Forums are general information, and are not intended to substitute for informed professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, tax, legal, investment, accounting, or other professional advice. Visajourney.com does not endorse, and expressly disclaims liability for any product, manufacturer, distributor, service or service provider mentioned or any opinion expressed in answers or comments. VisaJourney.com does not condone immigration fraud in any way, shape or manner. VisaJourney.com recommends that if any member or user knows directly of someone involved in fraudulent or illegal activity, that they report such activity directly to the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. You can contact ICE via email at Immigration.Reply@dhs.gov or you can telephone ICE at 1-866-347-2423. All reported threads/posts containing reference to immigration fraud or illegal activities will be removed from this board. If you feel that you have found inappropriate content, please let us know by contacting us here with a url link to that content. Thank you.
×
×
  • Create New...