Your Next Vacation: Outer Space?
The first-ever spaceship for tourists is blasting off next
year. Will you buy a ticket?
ired of your regular vacation spots? Looking for a little adventure?
Forget about that trip to Disney World or Six Flags. Why not book a
trip to space?
Thats right. Beginning next year, anyone with a boatload of cash and
a craving for adventure can buy a ride on the world first-ever commercial
spaceship. The Enterprise, owned by the company Virgin Galactic, will
take six passengers at a time on a three-hour trip 65 miles into the sky.
Passengers will experience such space-age thrills as blasting off at high
speeds, floating in zero gravity, and taking in views of Earth that only
astronauts (and perhaps aliens) have seen.
Like climbing Mount Everest or sailing solo around the world, a trip to
space puts a person in an exclusive club. Only 517 people in history have
traveled to space, and almost all of them were highly trained astronauts.
Virgin Galactic is opening up the age of space tourism, when any healthy
person 18 or older can go into space.
The trip on the Enterprise promises to be a hair-raising thrill ride.
Passengers will blast off at a speed of 2,600 miles per hourthats four
times the speed of a commercial jet. As the force of Earths gravity fades,
passengers will be able to unbuckle their seatbelts for six precious minutes
of weightless floating. And theyll have dazzling views of our planet. Many
astronauts agree that seeing Earth lit up against the dark and vast backdrop
of space sparks an appreciation for our planets fragilityas well as its
beauty.
But as excitement builds for the maiden voyage of the Enterprise, so does
concern. Space travel is dangerous18 astronauts have died on missions
over the past 50 years. Eleven others have died in training. The Enterprise
does boast the latest technology and safety features, but the ship will have
only a few test runs before its first official flight.
Passengers will also experience forces of motion that are far more
extreme than those of the most terrifying roller coasters. Yet they will
undergo little of the rigorous physical testing that astronauts endure before
they are cleared for a mission. Low gravity weakens the immune system,
Your Next Vacation: Outer Space?
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May be photocopied for classroom use. 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
putting anyone in space at risk for serious illness. A minor cold on Earth
might feel like a full-blown flu in space.
Finally, there is the cost of the ticket: $200,000 for the three-hour trip.
Thats $1,100 per minute.
Nevertheless, more than 430 people have already paid $20,000 each to
reserve their seats on future space flights. One of them is comedian Russell
Brand; the ticket is a birthday present from his wife, singer Katy Perry.
For the celebrity who has everything, it seems a trip to space might be
the perfect gift.
From Your Next Vacation: Outer Space? Published in Scholastic Scope,
September 11, 2011. Copyright 2011 by Scholastic Inc. Used by
permission. Scholastics copyrighted material shall not be republished,
re-transmitted, broadcast, downloaded, modified or adapted (rewritten),
manipulated, reproduced or otherwise distributed and/or exploited in
anyway without the prior written permission of Scholastic, Inc.
Your Next Vacation: Outer Space?
page
May be photocopied for classroom use. 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
