The wide world of space tourism

Cue the “thrill of victory, agony of defeat” theme music…

• Our first stop in our world tour is Israel, where the first travel agency certified by Virgin Galactic has started selling tickets. According to the director of that agency, Galactic Dreamlines, most Israelis who have expressed an interest in suborbital spaceflight to date are businesspeople “who like new experiences and adventures.”
• Next we go all the way to New Zealand, where one Virgin Galactic customer, Jackie Maw, is preparing for training in the US. One of Virgin’s 100 Founders, Maw will undergo training, including centrifuge time, at the NASTAR Center outside Philadelphia.
• And, finally, we go to Canada, where a musical group called the TADROS twins claim that they will be “the first artists to do a musical project in space”. They announced Monday that they have signed up with the “airline” Space Adventures to fly no earlier than 2010; a more specific launch date will be announced in 2008, and they don’t specify if it will be an orbital or suborbital flight. They plan to sing “a song for peace” while in weightlessness. They already appear to have completed some training: they “lived in a bubble for 7 days and 7 nights on the esplanade of La Place des Arts in Montreal”, where they wrote and recorded songs being released in a new album.