Marc Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut and until late last year the head of the Canadian Space Agency (he resigned to make an unsuccessful run for a seat in Parliament), visited a school recently in Westmount, a suburb of Montreal where he lives. An article in the Westmount Examiner recounts his comments about space tourism:
“It will launch from the ground, it will go up 100 kilometres, about 50 miles, which is defined as kind of the edge of space, and you will float for about two or three minutes and then it’ll come back down,” he said. “It’s not the same as going up in space and orbiting around the earth, but the price is much better.
“Apparently there are already about 8,000 reservations that have been filed. So a lot of people who desperately want to experience what it’s like to go into space – if they’ve got that kind of money and there are a lot of people who do – are going to at least have the experience … Otherwise, it’s just very expensive going into space at this point unfortunately.”
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