April Fools!
- 1st Apr 2016
- Author: Tamela Maciel
Did you catch our April Fool’s joke with Royal Caribbean Cruises? Well, it’s time to confess. As much as we wish it to be true, there is no Orbiter of the Galaxies space cruise ship and the National Space Centre is not a secret training facility for the space cruise staff.
But wouldn’t it be amazing if it were true?
Royal Caribbean Intergalactic promised an out-of-this-world holiday experience complete with stunning views and delicious space food.
But they are certainly not the first to contemplate the allure of space tourism. Dennis Tito was the first space tourist back in 2001, paying about 20 million US dollars to fly up to the International Space Station via the Soyuz spacecraft. Six other people followed suit between 2002 and 2009, spending up to 15 days orbiting the Earth.
In the next few years, private companies like Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace hope to begin sub-orbital tourist flights, offering people a chance to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of Earth from space.
The price tag won’t be for everyone, but space tourism will likely become more common as a growing number of companies compete to provide commercial space travel for NASA, ESA, and others.
In the meantime, here are a few things to keep you dreaming.
Check out these amazing space travel posters inspired by vintage posters of the 1930s. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory created these posters to celebrate the diversity of extraterrestrial worlds both in our own solar system and in the planets around other stars. We’re still learning what these exoplanet worlds might be like, but NASA has sketched some possible views from the few details we have. Fancy a trip to Kepler-16b, a planet with two suns in the sky?
Rest assured that any future space cruise may indeed offer delicious meals on board, despite the unappetising reputation of space food. Renowned chef Heston Blumenthal worked with British astronaut Tim Peake before his launch to create luxurious space food, including truffled beef stew, Alaskan salmon, and even a bacon sandwich, all sealed into cans approved by ESA. You can watch Heston develop these meals, and Tim’s verdict, in Heston’s Dinner in Space.
And finally, if you want to find out more about what life is like for astronauts we have a whole gallery dedicated to our journey into space. It’s called Into Space (we had fun naming that one!) and it is where you will find space food, space shampoo, space suits and even a space toilet from the MIR Space Station era.
