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Up until only recently, trips to space have primarily been government controlled, the idea of a holiday in the distant cosmos reserved for a galaxy far, far away, or perhaps conceivable in the year 3000. A lot has changed in a short space of time. At present, there are several ways for members of the public to take a suborbital space flight (but it may set you back half a mil):
Axiom Space Hotel - AX-1’s mission to the ISS. Initially starting off as a project between the ISS’ programme manager, Michael Suffredini and Dr Kam Ghaffarian (the owner of one of NASA’s biggest engineering contractors), Axiom has now grown to take on amateur astronauts and a wider team striving toward the launch of a commercial space station by 2024. Members of the team also intend to conduct research on microgravity in conjunction with commercial trips. Anyone got $40 million for a trip to the stars?
Virgin Galactic. Founded by Richard Branson and his Virgin Group, project Galactic is the world’s first commercial spaceline - a pivotal moment in the history of space exploration. So far there have been four crewed spaceflights amongst the core team. Virgin Galactic is set to open up to the public sometime during the spring of 2023. 800 people have already signed up for a seat on the spacecraft, with each flight coming in at just shy of half a million pounds.
Blue Origin, founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos. The New Shepard rocket has already had several paying customers on board since the project commenced, allowing for passengers to reach just shy of 100,000 metres on an 11 minute round trip. Half of the flight’s duration will be experienced as complete weightlessness. The price for a flight is not publicly known, but we doubt it’s a fiver…
While some quarantine measures due to COVID-19 are now lessening, travel restrictions still mean the annual holiday abroad is off the table to many in the UK and USA for the time being. At a time when we're all feeling a little trapped, the idea of getting away from it all is more powerful than ever, and our latest video gives you just that opportunity.
360° video viewed through a VR headset is one of the most immersive entertainment experiences available. Filmed in 5.2K resolution at 30fps, this video is cleanly stitched together with minimal unsightly edges or blurry sections, so you can lose yourself in the wondrous experience of floating in space.
For a sense of scale, this flight uses a premium CASIO watch to show the passage of time as we speed through the atmosphere, while demonstrating the extreme engineering of the brand which means you can rely on your watch wherever your travels take you.
For more mindblowing escapism, we have a whole playlist of unique, record-breaking and boundary=pushing 360 space videos right here.