The Space Tourist's Handbook

The Space Tourist's Handbook is a travel guide, instruction manual, and survival plan written by Eric Anderson the CEO of Space Adventures, the worlds' leading space tourism company, and Joshua Piven is the co-author.

In this book, they offer advice about the best itineraries, destinations, vehicles, and travel tips. If you are a millionaire, planning to make a trip into space, then this book should prove useful. It also contains some lovely photographs of the Soyuz rocket, diagrams and layouts of spacecraft, and useful facts. There is also a history lesson of space, and 25 great photographs of Space technology.

This book also highlights the advantages and disadvantages of different launch vehicles, the current destination options that are available, and some of the basics of space travel. It also provides information on how to survive in an emergency and even describes the operation of the ejector seat. The most useful part of the book is how to prepare for the medical exams and psychological tests. Passing these is the only way to travel into space. My advice would be not to drink any Vodka, and if there is, a chess strategy test let your comrade friend win!

The Soyuz usually makes regular trips to the International Space Station to deliver fuel and supplies, however it contains three seats and only two are usually used leaving the third seat free for ferrying passengers. The cost of the third seat was approximately 20 million dollars when this book came out. This amount would cover 5 years salary and equipment for the Russian Space Community Roscosmos.

Space tourism has always been popular even at times of recessions, and 20 million is not much these days as the money goes a long way towards the space and scientific communities in Russia. A wealthy Californian investment manager Dennis Tito became the first space tourist. Space Adventures organised a visit for him to Russia, where he completed the required medical examinations for space flight. Dennis Tito, who at one time was a NASA rocket scientist himself, went into space by the Soyuz rocket on April 28, 2001, to the International Space Station (ISS).

In 2009 Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil, also became a space tourist to visit the ISS. By 2012, seven private passengers had paid 20 million each to travel on the Soyuz rocket. As a space tourist, you will be using the Soyuz TMA Spacecraft to launch into space. The Soyuz family of rockets and spacecraft are the most reliable with over 1600 successful launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan.

My Sub-Orbital Space Flight Entry

This book also provided a chance to turn a dream into reality for one lucky winner to win a sub-orbital space flight, however the closing date for entry was June 2006.

I will be going into space as well, yes, you read this correctly, I have the winning lottery ticket right here... If those lousy NS & I Premium Bonds I bought win, I might have a chance. A million will get me as far as the Troposphere and then I will have to walk the rest of the way to the Thermosphere where the ISS orbits.

Back Cover

News

The British singer Sarah Brightman will be the next paying Space Tourist, scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2015.

Brightman has visited Moscow and already passed her medical exams to embark upon intensive space training. This trip was organised by Space Adventures, the same company that organised the trip for Dennis Tito, the first space tourist.

Good for Sarah is all I can say, as long as she donates to my charity because my cats and I are starving.

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