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Wannabe space hero eying low-budget flight
By Wang Zhuoqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-21 05:44
The success of the Shenzhou VI mission has spawned space mania in China with
one man declaring yesterday in Beijing that he would be the country's first
space tourist.
Jiang Fang: Would-be space hero?
[newsphoto] | On Wednesday, a company called Lunar Embassy offered parcels of "land" on the
moon.
And a day later, Eric Anderson, president of US-based Space Adventures Ltd,
confirmed that Jiang Fang will take off on a sub-orbital space mission in 2007,
adding that he had paid US$100,000 for the trip.
"A new hero is created when a spaceflight is launched," Anderson said. "I
want to create more private-space-travel heroes in China."
The firm sent the world's first three space tourists Dennis Tito in 2001,
Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and Greg Olsen this year to the International Space
Station at a cost of a cool US$20 million each.
Jiang said he is keen to experience the feeling of zero-gravity in the
one-and-half-hour sub-orbital mission where the craft flies at an altitude of
100 kilometres. A commercial jet flies at about 12 kilometres while Shenzhou VI
flew at an altitude of between 200 and 344 kilometres.
"I want to experience weightlessness and explore the wonders of space," said
Jiang, president of Hong Kong Space Travel Ltd, which is the Chinese agent for
Space Adventure.
He explained that he decided to become the agent for the US company after
applying for the trip.
His company offers services ranging from orbital and sub-orbital flights to
space-flight training and other space-related adventures. The applicant doesn't
need any special approval from the government.
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