They are willing to pay as much as $200,000 for the novel experience. A Chinese businessman, from eastern China’s Zhejiang province has paid as much to become his country’s first space tourist, hoping for his space trip some time by the end of 2008. The wealthy man over 40 wants to keep his identity hidden.

Their journey will be on board Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo for the suborbital trip. About 20 men and three women from China had applied for tickets. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket-powered vehicle will carry six passengers and two pilots for a 2.5-hour weekly flight,as per the company.

Two companies that are providing this novel experience compete closely with one another . The first is the much publicized Virgin Galactic group, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson and the second being Space Adventures travel agency.

Virgin galactic plans to launch its flights from spaceports in California and New Mexico, while Space Adventures has announced plans to build spaceports in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

While both claim to be the first to be providing suborbital space travel and both have strong concerns about safety. Time will only tell how much of a truly remarkable experience they can provide.

So far, four private tourists have visited space, paying around $20 million each.
A U.S. businessman in 2001 became the world’s first paying space tourist, traveling to the orbiting space station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. He spent a week in orbit.

Today space travel is being touted as the ultimate destination. People who are not astronauts will also get their time in space . Dreams of adventure, exploration and of course meetings with aliens have had a hold on people starting from the days of the star trek. Space has indeed become the Final Frontier and is reachable if you have $20 million.

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Via: CNN