Velvet black dome of the night sky, like a theatrical curtain, separates ordinary life from a miracle..Here - the whirlwind of earthly affairs, noise, speed, clock ticking and a world of sensations .There - Nothing and Everything, absolute emptiness and a bubbling substrate in which galaxies are born, lack of time, smells and sounds..And there is nothing surprising in that humanity is ready to give a lot of money in order to literally break away from the Earth .After all, a journey into outer space offers well just diametrically opposite impressions to those to which we are accustomed in the physical world .But, in spite of the vastness of the cosmos, the options for attending to the infinite are not much .First of all, due to the fact that it is possible to overcome gravity with modern development of scientific thought in only one way - by overclocking and keeping speed for a long enough time to escape from the strong embraces of the Earth .Secondly, again, by the mercy of experts from science, in space, as they say, you will not make a lot of progress: if you are on board the orbital station (in more than constrained conditions - indeed, on Earth such you will not find!) Or at all - 5 -6 minutes in zero gravity and welcome to "home" .Whatever the case, the new tourism industry promises to become promising: since 2001 8 commercial launches for the International Space Station have been conducted, and the number registered for the announced but not yet implemented suborbital flights has exceeded 600 .But everything in order .So, what are the tours to Cosmos .

Option # 1 - Expedition to the ISS

The first and so far the only valid version of the tours in the Cosmos .In fact, the tourist becomes an astronaut - the requirements for health, testing, training and rules of conduct are the same as those that astronauts working in orbit .The only difference is that the tourist pays the trip out of his pocket and has the right to laze on the ISS .This is how all the seven space tourists made their "star" flights - the first, Dennis Tito, went into space in 2001, the last (or, in the language of superstitious sky conquerors, the extreme) - Guy Laliberte - in 2009 .

In short, the journey is as follows: .To begin with, the space tourist undergoes a thorough examination of the state of health, according to which the doctors give the conclusion that there are no explicit contra-indications to the flight to the space .Then follow the organizational moments - the date of launch (coinciding with the date of the replacement of the Russian crew of the ISS), insurance, signing of the agreement, payment of the tour and other paper money procedures .Finally, the first day of the "space odyssey of the twentieth year" - a tourist arrives in the Star City, where for the next 6-9 months comes at the disposal of doctors .Here, the future conqueror of space is spinning in centrifuges and subjected to sixfold overloads, they are taught to handle a spacesuit (and make an individual according to the full plaster cast of the body) and generally with weightlessness as a phenomenon, and also instructed by the smallest nuances of behavior on the ISS .

And here comes the day when the chick is ready to drop out of the nest and get on the wing .The last few days before the start, the space tourist spends on Baikonur to put on one suit in the morning, to squeeze into the Soyuz spacecraft in the company of two more professional cosmonauts and depart at a speed of 7.9 km / s to the worlds of the world..By the way, with a tourist under the terms of the program has the right to take any goods necessary for him to carry out a personal program - scientific or entertaining - this is who decides how .Approximately two days later, the Union door will be knocked outside - and most likely it will be the ISS team, joyfully greeting visitors from the Earth .At least 6 days the space tourist will spend in orbit, hovering, aki the heavenly angel, and then return to his native planet together with the previous crew of the station .The landing will take place in the descending module of the same "Union" somewhere in the expanses of the Kazakh steppe ."Meeting at the airport representatives of the host party", of course, is included in the cost of the tour, as well as post-flight rehabilitation $ $.

Option number 2 - Suborbital flight

Until the realized version of space tours, suborbital flight allows, what is called, to look beyond the screen of space .Advantages before the expedition to the ISS - a relatively low cost, less stringent requirements for health, a short travel time and a high frequency of launches - at least one per day .The drawback, perhaps, is only one - to experience fantastic sensations from space, alas, it is possible for only a few minutes .And of course, the first run will have to wait at least until the end of 2012, and most likely - and up to 2014 .

Suborbital flight is actually a trip on a special aircraft - a spacecraft, a hybrid of an airplane with a spaceship .With the first it has an external appearance, with the second - stuffing, namely, rocket engines, capable of providing enough traction to bring the ship to the bottom of the earth's orbit .Formally, the cosmos begins 100 km from the surface of the Earth - it is to this height and delivers tourists the cosmos .The strength of the earth's gravity is extremely small here, but this is not an orbit on which to consolidate - for this, the spacecraft does not have enough traction (especially since the engines are turned off at about 80 km altitude and all subsequent flight passes in silence) ±​​$ br >.Gravity of the Earth gradually takes its - and the ship with tourists on board begins to inexorably strive to the planet ."Struggle" of engineering thought and laws of attraction lasts about 6-7 minutes, during which space tourists can experience all the pleasures of being in stellar heights: weightlessness, crazy beauty and, literally, unearthly silence..

Further, the spaceport, falling to the Earth, more and more lowers its nose on the principle of badminton volcanic and, according to the laws of aerodynamics, enters the controlled corkscrew. With each turn, the loops become wider and fuller, and finally the ship begins almost flat planning. About a quarter of an hour later, he will land at the starting airfield.

Option number 3 - Precosmos, or flight to the stratosphere

Having formally approached the question, flights at a maximum altitude of 23-25 ​​km can not be considered cosmic, since the conditional boundary of the cosmos - the so-called Karman line - passes at an altitude of 100 km above sea level, that is 4 times higher. Nevertheless, high-altitude flights have their admirers - they are relatively inexpensive, you can go tomorrow, but impressions are truly wonderful. And let the dive into the star blackness will not succeed, but to see the clouds somewhere far below and the horizon rounded to the poles is quite real.

High-altitude flights are conducted on domestic fighters MiG-29 and MiG-31, there is no need to talk about it - everyone knows that they are the fastest, reliable and competitorless children of Russian military aircraft construction..In the cockpit of the plane for the tourist the place of the co-pilot is intended - behind the first .Nevertheless, the review is easy - the "lantern" of the cab is transparent in all directions .In front of the tourist there are also all kinds of instruments - altimeter, overload indicators, speed and t .д .After a brief briefing on the ground, choosing a high-altitude suit and helmet and dressing in ammunition, the pilot and tourist take their places and are given a command to take off .According to reviews flying, already at this stage you feel that something unusual is happening: you are riding in a glass dome with a panoramic view at a five-meter height .After take-off, the fighter in the twinkling of an eye appears above the clouds: it seems that only just from under the landing gear the earth has left - and here below lies an infinite white feather .It takes a few minutes to reach the stratosphere, and at an altitude of more than 22 km the plane will dissect the "pre-cosmos" at a supersonic speed of about 2500 km / h .There will be everything: aerobatics, dizzying speed, and stopping the engine at a crazy height, and the passages, almost chirping, along the runway, and again the clouds ... The flight lasts about an hour, and at the end of the tour, the tourist gets a corresponding certificate of $ The .

Option number 4 - Flight "0-gravity"

The most sparing version of familiarizing with the expanses of the Universe is the parabolic flight on native Ilah or foreign Boeing, converted to the joy of weightlessness and free fall .Actually, to the space such a journey has only one relation - the absence of terrestrial gravity .In the rest, it is rather an ordinary flight on a civilian aircraft - the same heights, the same view from the window .The whole chip in its trajectory, similar to the movement of a train on a roller coaster .In the graphic representation, it can be represented in the form of a parabola (for those who forgot the school course of geometry - a high and narrow arch) .The plane with tourists aboard abruptly soars up, gains enough altitude and just rushes rushing down, slightly hanging at the top point of the parabola .The body instantly "makes it easier" and then becomes weightless - as if you were moving down in the cabin of a high-speed elevator .In reality, the aircraft falls to the ground with acceleration, and tourists simply move freely inside its shell .Such artificial weightlessness lasts no more than 30 seconds - the planet is approaching swiftly, and the plane still has to be taken out of the peak .Next - landing approach and unremarkable landing at the airport .

Those who do not yet have sufficient funds to travel to space, we advise not to be upset: you can feel yourself an astronaut and for much less money. Pay attention to our page How to join the Cosmos and not fly out to the pipe.

Author - Alexandra Azarova.