Save up those frequent-flier miles – and stock up on transdermal scopolamine. Virgin Galactic has your seat on SpaceShipTwo ready. The yet-to-be-scheduled two-and-a-half-hour jaunts to the thermosphere will cost $200,000 (or 2 million Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points). It'll be rough – 3 gs on the 68-mile ascent, 6 gs on the way down – but stylish. "What really drove the design was having as much free space as possible for people to enjoy being weightless," says Dick Powell, director of design shop Seymourpowell, which recently unveiled the ship's interior. The comfy seats are curved and soft (probably so rich goofballs don't bruise themselves in zero gravity), and the windows are big (the better to see Earth). And the Tang? Freshly squeezed.

Space Tourism by the Numbers

• Cost of a Soyuz trip and a stay on the International Space Station: $20 million

• SpaceShipTwo tickets sold: About 200

• Weightless minutes on a SpaceShipTwo flight: 5

• Cost per minute of weightlessness: $1,333

• Volume of the human stomach: About 1 quart

– Aria Pearson and Adam Rogers



credit michaelsoluri.com

START

Zero G, First Class

Ping

Rebooting the Ecosystem

How To: Foil Wiretaps at Home

What’s inside: Premium Unleaded

Manhattan Projects

Peekaboo, I'm Spying on You

The Morning After

Licensed to Thrill

Podcast Lectures 101

I Heart Outsourcing

Disparate Measures

Will Work for Food

Jargon Watch

The Best: Science Fictions

Wired | Tired | Expired

The Face of Facebook