Is space tourism safe?
Sometime in 2009, George Whitesides, the executive director of the National Space Society, and his wife will be the first private citizens to fly with Virgin Galactic, the private space tourism company started by billionaire Sir Richard Branson. Mr. and Mrs. Whiteside paid $200,000 each to launch 400,000 feet into suborbital space. They’ll experience weightlessness for a few minutes before they’re pulled back down to the Earth by gravity. Although it’s an expensive endeavor, space travel has reached a turning point, with private citizens able to make their own reservations for spaceflights. But how safe could a space tour actually be? The space tourism industry is currently going through its own race — although it doesn’t have the same tense political implications as the
