ONLY the mega-wealthy know that there is a travel agent who brokers trips to space for the rich.
Roman Chiporukha, otherwise known as Mr Intergalactic, founded SpaceVIP to take thrill-seekers out to space – but he believes holidays to the stars will be available for all soon.
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Space tourism is an industry that has been blossoming, slowly but steadily, for several years now.
Companies around the world are sharpening their elbows for a slice of the market, whose target audience is the Earth’s ultra-wealthy.
And founder of SpaceVIP Chiporukha is ahead of the game, already offering a Michelin star meal in a pressurised Neptune capsule in the fringes of space.
But this comes at a hefty cost of $495,000 – appealing to the world’s wealthiest.
He told The Sun that, despite the eye-watering price, what started as terrifying, high-risk suborbital flights will soon transform into affordable trips for those wanting to see Earth at a different angle.
Drawing comparison to commercial flights, Chiporukha said how once space tourism expands, the cost will then decrease.
But it will also take more people to experience what’s dubbed the “overview effect” to start the shift to space.
He said: “The overview effect has been catalogued by every single astronaut that has been in space, and that is this notion of feeling, interconnectedness with the earth that you see from afar, and all of the beings on it.
“I’ve come to believe that space can be a catalyst for greater human change and a shift in consciousness.
“That’s a real governing factor of why people are drawn to this, and they want to educate humanity on.”
Chiporukha, however, is desperate to ditch the narrative that space travel and tourism is only for the world’s elite.
He said: “I find it, frankly, really frustrating when people are tweeting or talking their slightly irrelevant opinions, or speaking poorly about Bezos or Branson or Elon.
“They don’t realize that they’re using technology that was brought to them by satellites in space.
“So what some of these travelers are trying to do is they want to go up to space, they want to experience the overview effect.
“It’s very convenient for, you know, the media to sensationalize this billionaire joyride narrative ‘a****** rich guy goes to space, and we’re starving here’.
“That narrative is inherently false, because all of their missions have a tremendous purpose in this notion of space for earth.”
Despite this, SpaceVIP has teamed up with a Danish chef to create a six-hour dining experience up in space – and has had great interest in it.
It’s set to depart later this year from the Kennedy Space in Florida, with the flight set to last around six hours in a pressurized capsule, lifted by a stratospheric balloon to the lowest barrier of space.
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Future passengers will have access to WiFi the entire time and will even be able to livestream the incredible experience for their family and friends to watch from Earth.
But organising such a trip doesn’t come without some difficulties.
As Chiporukha works essentially as a travel agent but for space specifically, he has complained that with space travel not fully understood yet, it can be hard to plan.
Chiporukha explained: “We are very transparent about the process, and the training, and all of the things that come in engaging in such an adventure.
“[So] sorry, sir, or, madam, you can’t get insurance, because there’s no actuarial data for space travel just yet, so it’s fly at your own risk.”
Mr Intergalactic also revealed how it is the human race‘s “destiny” to eventually live in space.
He said: “I think we’re meant to be a space-faring species.
“I think that’s our inevitable future, and not to leave Earth because we f***** it up so much, but because it’s our destiny for lack of a better word.”
STAR SPACE MISSION
In April, Katy Perry soared 62 miles above Earth with Jeff Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sanchez, journalist Gayle King, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
The group flew in Bezos’ own Blue Origin New Shepard NS-31 ship and soared past the Kármán line – the internationally recognised boundary of space.
They blasted off from West Texas as part of a history-making, 11-minute flight set to be the first all-female space trip since 1963.
The women on board even passed a “pink moon” as part of the first all-female spaceflight in over 60 years.
The women spent three minutes in pure weightlessness before the craft safely parachuted back down and landed in Texas.
The total mission time was just 10 minutes and 21 seconds.
It also marked the 11th human mission for the New Shepard program, which has now flown 52 people — including repeat flyers — to space.
Elon Musk’s Mars dream
By Annabel Bate, Foreign News Reporter
ELON Musk’s dreams of forging human cities on Mars could see children become “green-skinned Martians with brittle bones and weak eyes”.
Experts predict that the SpaceX mogul’s plans to establish cities on Mars could leave humans mutating so bad they adapt to being blind.
Musk, who is vocal about his goals for humans to live on Mars, believes we need to colonise it to become a “multi-planet species”.
He posted on X: “These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars.
“If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years.
“Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years.”
But Rice University biologist Scott Solomon claims humans would endure living conditions so brutal they prompt a change in skin colour and loss of eyesight.
Dr Solomon says it’s the children of Martian settlers who would undergo the most drastic of evolutionary changes and mutate.
He says these kids would develop brittle bones and weaker muscles, and may develop a freakishly green colouring.
Dr Solomon writes in his book: “Science fiction has often portrayed Martians or aliens coming from Mars as being tall and lanky and thin.”
It’s also thought that the weaker bones brought on by the lack of gravity may cause a woman’s pelvis to break during childbirth.
He explained that these mutations or changes would take place much faster on Mars because of the vast changes in lifestyle, gravity and radiation.
Mars is smaller than Earth and has 38 per cent less gravity, lacks a global magnetic field, a thick atmosphere and a protective ozone layer.
This means Mars gets battered by space radiation, UV light, charged particles from the sun and cosmic rays – leading to more mutations.
And this would cause higher mutation rates in the DNA of humans living there, the biologist explains in his book Future Humans.
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