Space Tourism: A Survival Guide

For just $200,000, you’ll soon be able to boldly go where only a handful of moguls have gone before (for at least a few minutes)

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By Brett Berk

February 24, 2012 at 2:55 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

BusinessWeek Cover Image (12_09, portrait)

This article is part of the February 27, 2012 issue of businessweek.

The Gateway to Space terminal subtly emerges from the drab scrub of southern New Mexico’s Jordana Del Muerto Desert, like the secret lair of a Roger Moore-era Bond villain: its trailing edge buried in native soil, its undulating ochre roof echoing the line of mountains behind, and its three-story curving glass wall reflecting the ridge opposite.

It’s here that the first civilian astronauts on Virgin Galactic’s space tourism flights will train. And it is from the site’s pristine two-mile runway that the cosmos-bound ark SpaceShipTwo will blast off—horizontally, nestled between the twin booms of the supersonic WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft—on its suborbital missions. Nearly 500 people from 18 to 88 have forked over $65 million in deposits on the $200,000 ticket price. What can you, O brave space pioneer, expect as you prepare for and embark on your historic voyage? The specifics are not yet final, but extensive interviews and a site visit have yielded this detailed preview of the four-day experience.