An Israeli company called Space Pioneers, which acquired the franchise to market flights to space in Israel, is beginning to prepare to market flights to space to Israel's wealthy, mainly suborbital flights that will be marketed starting in 2006 for one hundred thousand dollars
Avi Blizovsky
Greg Olsen, an American researcher and entrepreneur, was launched into space this morning in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, on his way to the International Space Station. In doing so, Olsen became the third person to visit the International Space Station as a tourist, after the American Dennis Tito and the South African Mark Shuttleworth, for $20 million. Like Tito and Shuttleworth, Olsen was launched into space through the mediation of the American company Space Adventures, which plans to launch private space flights in special spacecraft that will operate from the end of 2006, at a cost of about $100,000 "only" per tourist.
At the same time, an Israeli company called space pioneers (www.spacepioneers.biz) purchased a franchise from the American space adventures company that allows it to exclusively market all of the American company's products, especially private space flights, in Israel. The Israeli company is headed by Aliron Yaron, a high tech entrepreneur.
Space pioneers will focus on the marketing of tickets for "sub-orbital" flights to space, in private spacecraft that will be launched from the USA starting in 2006. The cost for such flights will be only about $100,000.
Aliron Yaron, CEO of Space Pioneers, explains: "We would also be happy to fly an Israeli to the International Space Station for a week's stay like Tito, Shuttleworth and Olsen, but the price for that is $20 million, and it is hard to assume that there will be more than two - three Israelis who want and can spend such an amount . Naturally, we will focus more on the suborbital flights, which will cost about $100,000. The difference between the expensive flight and the cheap flight is simple: whoever pays 20 million dollars will go to the International Space Station together with Russian cosmonauts, in a Soyuz spacecraft, and circle the Earth for a week. The passengers who pay $100,000, starting at the end of next year, will fly in a private American spaceship that is being built these days especially for this purpose, will rise into space, see the Earth from above, experience the feeling of weightlessness and land without making a complete circle around the Earth, just like the first American astronauts, Before the days of Apollo and the space shuttle. About 100,000 people from all over the world have already signed up for such flights, and today we are already in contact with several Israelis who are considering purchasing such a ticket and gain an experience that they will not forget for a lifetime. In the not too distant future, I intend to travel by myself. In 4-5 years, it will become an accepted vacation like a weekend in the Caribbean, for example."
Besides the flights to space, space pioneers is also going to market other experiences in the field, at much cheaper prices. For example, the company is starting to market in Israel a trip to Russia, in which the adventure-loving tourists will be flown in a Russian MiG-29 plane to the incredible height of 25 km, the limit of space, where you can see the edge of the atmosphere. More on the menu: a trip to the Russian "City of Stars", the Yuri Gagarin training base, and a flight in a jet plane swirling in the sky to simulate the weightlessness of space, organized trips to the American space shuttle launch site in Florida and watching the launch accompanied by an astronaut, organized expeditions to search for meteorites in Antarctica, and more.
