Two couples from Gibraltar are the first to put a quarter of a million dollars on a pair of tickets to space, which may become one-way tickets; The flight will take off in 2003 and more passengers are still needed to fill a spacecraft
News agencies, news and Walla
4/3/01
A couple from Gibraltar, the British colony in southern Spain, paid about a quarter
A million dollars for a flight into space, a flight from which it is not clear whether they will return.
The couple, in their 40s and 50s, hope to remain anonymous, so that they don't
They will have to explain their whim to all their family members. Buying the tickets
It was reported by the entrepreneur from Manchester, who sold them the tickets. The man, Steve
Bennett, will fly the couple on the first private space flight in 2003
The couple will first take off for a fifteen-minute test flight, in
will adapt to the lack of weight. If this flight is successful, preparations for the flight will begin
The serious one, which costs ten million dollars. The spacecraft will make two flights
into space, with three people on board at a time. Bennett should sell two
Additional tickets, each at a price of three quarters of a million dollars.
"We've already had a lot of inquiries," said Bennett, who before becoming a travel agent
Khalal worked as a dental technician. "But no one has put the money down yet."
The couple from Gibraltar heard about the flight on the participating Discovery channel
Funding the trip, together with Microsoft.
"They know the risks. I know the risks and I'm willing to take them
them. I will fly with them - and I have a great family to return to," he said
Bennett is confident in the success of the project. "Space has always been a vision, but
In recent months, it has become serious."
Bennett, and forty members of his crew, have already successfully launched several spacecraft
experimental in recent years. "It's not just 'Steve working in the yard anymore
His rear,'" says Bennett.
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