Always closer to the stars. After Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, on July 11, it's Jeff Bezos' turn to take the path to space this Tuesday, July 20. The founder of Amazon will take his seat aboard the New Shepard, the spaceship of his company Blue Origin, in order to experience in turn a few minutes of weightlessness. Two trips a few days apart which mark a new breakthrough for space tourism. But a trip outside the Earth, whether it lasts a few minutes or a few days, will undoubtedly remain for a very long time a privilege reserved for the wealthy. Fortunately, experiences approaching space travel are possible near home and without spending a sum ... astronomical.
Read also: After Richard Branson's successful flight, everything you need to know about space tourism
0 €: stargazing from Earth
The Black Triangle of Quercy designates an area of the Causses du Quercy Regional Natural Park spared from light pollution.
Tourism Lot - E. Pinsard
Relive Thomas Pesquet's first space journey, navigate the entire known universe, scrutinize the sky… So many experiences to be enjoyed from home with a simple Internet connection. Another way to navigate the cosmos: get away from cities and scan the sky from an area protected from light pollution or from an observatory. In France, several sites are suitable for stargazing all year round and particularly during the Nuits des étoiles (from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 August 2021). The “black triangle of Quercy” lends itself particularly well to astrotourism, since this area offers the darkest sky in France. Since last May, the Causses du Quercy Regional Natural Park has been classified as a “Territory of starred towns and villages”.
Read also: Nuits des étoiles: 7 exceptional sites to scan the sky in France
15 €: scan the sky in a planetarium
The park of the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse, dominated by a life-size replica of the Ariane 5 rocket. Cité de l'Espace / Manuel Huynh
France has nearly 170 planetariums, these domes on which are projected the celestial vault and films (documentaries or fictions) on astronomy.
Those of the Cité des sciences in Paris and the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse are among the largest and most frequented in France.
Plunged into darkness, the spectators attend a screening before discussing with a scientific mediator.
The opportunity to update your knowledge of astronomy.
And a way to have your head in the stars for only a few euros.
Read also: Visit an exoplanet, think of yourself as Thomas Pesquet ... five sites to explore space (without leaving Earth)
150 €: go on a mission to Mars with Nasa
The Astronaut Training Experience offered by the Kennedy Space Center in Florida includes a passage through a microgravity simulator.
NASA
The Kennedy Space Center, off the coast of Florida, is not just NASA's rocket launch center. The complex also houses a vast visitor trail that will delight fans of the conquest of space. The entrance ticket generally includes access to the launch observation platform at Cape Canaveral; the ideal is therefore to go there on a rocket launch day. Want to put yourself in the shoes of an astronaut on a mission? Take part in the Astronaut Training Experience. This training center allows you the time of a day to experience a Martian expedition. Walking on the red planet in virtual reality, piloting a rover, experimenting with microgravity ... It almost feels like it!
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
, Space Commerce Way, Merritt Island, FL 32953, USA.
Phone.
: +1 855 433 4210. Prices: 57 dollars (48 €) entry from 12 years old, 47 dollars (40 €) up to 11 years old;
175 dollars (150 €) for the Astronaut Training Experience.
Read the dossier: United States: the
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400 €: for children, a one-week astronaut course
Located in the south of Belgium, the Euro Space Center can be visited with the family during the day and offers children one-week courses.
Euro Space Center
A theme park specializing in space, the Euro Space Center, located in the south of Belgium, is a place to take its children who are passionate about astronomy. If the family can visit the park during the day, children can stay there for a week to follow a preparation course for a space mission in a summer camp atmosphere. Pilot a spacecraft, build a rocket, experiment with microgravity ... In small groups, budding astronauts (aged 9 to 18) discover the main aspects of a space mission. Count between € 279 in day school and € 485 in boarding school for the Astronaut Camp (6 days / 5 nights). Something to inspire vocations.
Euro Space Center
, 1 rue devant les Hêtres, B-6890 Transinne, Belgium.
Phone.
: +32 61 65 64 65. Prices: € 29 day entry for an adult, free for children under 1.10 m;
courses from € 279 depending on age, duration and specialties.
Read also: Nature weekend in the Ardennes: six activities to disconnect
€ 6,000: a weightless flight over Bordeaux
“Astronauts for a day”, with Jean-François Clervoy at the center, form the “human wing” in weightlessness during a discovery flight.
Nicolas COURTIOUX / Svein Schneider - DLR
The company Novespace, based in Bordeaux, offers parabolic flights aboard an Airbus A310 Zero G. The pilots perform a "parabolic maneuver" several times (alternating ascents and descents in stages) allowing passengers to be weightless by periods of about twenty seconds. A sensation similar to that experienced by the astronauts who walked on the Moon. The two-hour discovery flights take place in the company of astronaut Jean-François Clervoy. If the flight does not require special physical ability, there are still some contraindications. A medical examination is also necessary before the flight. Note that all flights departing from Bordeaux are full until August 26, 2022. Flights are also available from Zurich in Switzerland.
Novespace
, 29 rue Marcel Issartier, 33700 Mérignac.
Phone.
: 05 56 34 05 99.
Read also: Zero gravity flight: Jean-François Clervoy reveals the sensation of space
100,000 €: a balloon flight in the stratosphere
Zephalto's Celestial Balloon is due to take its first passengers into the stratosphere in 2024. SDP
It looks like a hot air balloon, except that it is designed to rise to the stratosphere.
Imagined by the French company Zephalto, based in Hérault, the Céleste balloon will take passengers to an altitude of 25 km from 2024. At this altitude, still well below the limit with space, they will be able to observe the curvature of the Earth and enjoy the darkness of the sky from inside a pod.
The first tourist flights are expected in 2024, will last between six hours and a few days and will be launched from France initially.
Ticket price: € 100,000 minimum.
Read also: On board a balloon for a space cruise
From 170,000 to 250,000 €: a suborbital flight with Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin
Richard Branson has just made his dream come true. On July 11, the 70-year-old billionaire boarded a shuttle from his company Virgin Galactic and thus offered himself a few minutes of weightlessness at an altitude of 80 km. A first manned flight intended to reassure future candidates for a suborbital journey. This is provided by SpaceShipTwo, a reusable spacecraft that takes off like a classic plane before descending in gliding flight. Virgin Galactic aims to provide up to 400 flights per year from the start of 2022. More than 600 tickets sold between 200,000 and 250,000 dollars (ie between 170,000 and 210,000 €) have already been sold. But the company warned that future seats on sale would be more expensive ...
A competitor of Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin, has not communicated on the prices it will charge.
The price could be between 200,000 and 300,000 dollars (or between 170,000 and 250,000 €), or slightly more expensive than with Virgin Galactic, for a flight that will slightly exceed the altitude of 100 km.
A seat on Blue Origin's first commercial flight (scheduled for 2022) was purchased at auction for 28 million euros for a starting price of $ 4.8 million.
Read also: Richard Branson makes his first space flight with Virgin Galactic
45 million euros: ten days aboard a space hotel
The Axiom Space module, which should be docked to the ISS in 2024, will notably include a hotel designed by Philippe Starck.
Axiom Space
It is certainly the most expensive hotel in the world, and it is located 400 km from Earth. 55 million dollars (45 million euros) is the sum that will have to be spent to stay ten days aboard the space hotel imagined by the company Axiom Space, co-founded by Michel Suffredini, former director of programs of the ISS. The module created by the French Philippe Starck will include both a laboratory and a hotel. The eight individual berths will be equipped with touch screens, hundreds of nano-LEDs in evolving colors and a window with a view of our planet. To reach their vacation spot, tourists will take a seat aboard a SpaceX capsule, the company of Elon Musk, a partner of Axiom Space. The module should dock with the ISS by 2024.Enough to give us time to put money aside.