Aera Corp. Selling Tickets To Space Starting Thursday

Without even having flown a spaceship yet, Aera Corp. plans on selling tickets to outer space at $150,000 a pop starting this Thursday. Actually, you can consider it to be a pre-order program, as flights won’t start leaving the ground for another year and a half or so. The company plans to begin testing in August 2006 at Cape Canaveral, and begin commercial flight in December of the same year.

Aera’s tour package would include a week of spaceflight training in the Orlando area and Cape Canaveral, climaxing with a flight aboard the company’s computer-controlled Altairis rocket to a height of more than 80 miles (128 kilometers). At that altitude, passengers would feel a few minutes of weightlessness and glimpse the curvature of the earth below the blackness of space. A parachute system would make for a soft landing at the end of the trip.

Grab your credit card, and hit up AeraSpaceTours.com to reserve your spot. If you want to get on the initial flight, expect to pay at least $250,000 - paid in full. Subsequent trips will be $150,000 and require a 25% deposit.

Read More | Aera Space Tours via MSNBC