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The space race between America and Russia continues, but today the competition is for the hearts of tourists. On the guided tour at the Kennedy Space Center, you can see the Earth from the perspective of a space shuttle; In the "City of Stars" near Moscow you can even experience weightlessness

Moshe Gilad

Photographs: NASA
The launch of the space shuttle "Atlantis" in May 1991

The Florida Space Center has become another stop between Disney World and Universal Studios

Today, April 12, is a historic day: 41 years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space. The Americans were a little disappointed, but humanity celebrated a great achievement. Eight years later, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, the euphoria was already in full swing, and space tourism had a bright future ahead of it. It didn't happen, but visiting the American space center and its Russian counterpart is still a fascinating attraction.

The interest that Earth's inhabitants take in flights to space can be witnessed by the tens of thousands who gather every month around the NASA launch site in Florida, to watch the rocket that will lift off into space in a few seconds. Although since September 11, NASA does not allow viewing of the launch from the space center, but even so, thousands of RV owners are stationed outside the base and wait for hours for the launch.


The launch of the space shuttle "Columbia" in July 1994

The most popular sites for watching the space shuttle launches are Highway #1 along the Indian River, especially from the town of Titusville, and B-Line Highway, also known as State Road 528, mainly from the points where the road crosses the Indian River and the Banana River. Another site is along the Atlantic coast at Cocoa Beach. The next scheduled launches are on May 31st, July 11th and August 1st.

Linda Beloy, who guided the tour in which I participated in the US Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said that at NASA, opinions are divided regarding the significance of the location of the US Space Center. Some admit that this location attracts visitors and benefits the center of the space. Others claim that it is harmful, because because of it no one treats the activity of the center with the respect it deserves. "There is no doubt that for many we are another stop on the tour between the parks and amusements in Florida. The visit to the NASA launch base is somewhat oddly part of a trip between Disney in Orlando and Universal Studios. Most of the people who come here simply forget that it's real with us," said Beloy.

The American space agency has invested 120 million dollars in the past seven years in the development of tourism at the Kennedy Space Center, between Jacksonville and Miami. The tour of the place, which includes a visit to the launch facilities open to the public and the historic control rooms, is a fascinating family pastime, even for those who are not considering becoming an astronaut. NASA people show the first manned spacecraft (which look tiny and very fragile) and an exact replica of the current space shuttle.

All of these are accompanied by an explanation that transforms the American space project (where the Soviet space heritage is not really cultivated) from a secret military project to a human achievement - a great adventure with a flavor of mythology, which is mainly reminiscent of the great explorers of the world. Even a study of the names of the space shuttles makes this clear: the shuttles flying now are called "Atlantis", "Columbia" and "Endeavour", like the name of the ship of the discoverer of the world, Captain Cook.

The most amazing part of visiting the space center is actually watching the movie, which is projected using the Imax method on a huge screen: a sequence of photographs of the Earth from the space shuttle, which cruises 450 kilometers above the surface of the earth. For a few hours you can go around the world here again and again, on a tour that looks like looking at a huge globe - but this time it's the real thing. Italy does look like a boot, Florida like a finger in the ocean, and Australia is a big island in the sea. In the photographs taken during the day, no human imprint is visible: even the claim that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space is not confirmed. The night photographs are a different story: the small, isolated groups of illuminated areas give some proportion to human influence on the world: Europe and the east and west coasts of North America are illuminated, and everything else is very dark.

The visit to the NASA center costs 26 dollars for an adult and 16 dollars for a child. Mark Shuttleworth, a South African businessman, paid much more for the real experience: he is scheduled to fly into space in about two weeks, on the 25th of the month, and become the second space tourist in history, after the elderly millionaire Dennis Tito, who visited the International Space Station in April 2001. Shuttleworth, customer of the American company Space Adventures, paid about 20 million dollars. But the majority of the company's income comes from ordinary tourists, much less wealthy, who join an organized trip specifically to the center of Russian space called the "City of Stars".

Thus, somewhat strangely, the competition for space between the United States and Russia continues; Although it is not the same heroic race of the 60s when the two superpowers competed to be the first to place a man on the moon, they are still competing among themselves as to who will attract to their space centers more tourists and curious people who are still enchanted by the space adventure.

For $2,675 you can purchase a comprehensive tour of the Russian space program, with three nights at a hotel in Moscow. The heart of the trip is a tour accompanied by a cosmonaut in the "City of Stars" near Moscow - the Russian equivalent of the Kennedy Center in Florida. The space museum and training center are named after space pioneer Yuri Gagarin, who was killed at the age of 38 in a plane crash.

The state of the Russian space program is not alarming. The Russians don't have millions of dollars to invest in developing a visitor center, so they are less picky. The tour by Space Adventures offers, because of this predicament, experimental use of some of the facilities of the Russian Space Agency. Thus, every tourist can try the water laboratory, which simulates conditions of weightlessness, enter the space station simulator for a few minutes or spin a little in the centrifuge facility, which simulates gravity 30 times more than what we are used to on Earth. NASA people are shocked by the very idea. In their eyes, the comparison with Disney's roller coaster is already less insulting.

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