Profile of a Space Tourist

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  08.21.08 | 12:15 PM ET

earthfromspacePhoto: NASA

The space tourism business is heating up, but who are these customers willing to spend millions of dollars for what they hope will be the ride of their lives? Wired offers a fascinating profile of one would-be space tourist—Japanese tech millionaire Daisuke Enomoto, who completed a grueling training program only to be grounded by a kidney stone.

Writer David Kushner details some of the challenges space tourists have to overcome: “The months of intensive cosmonaut training was hard [sic] on the keyboard jockey, especially the fitness regimen. When he arrived, he could do only two chin-ups. Swimming 800 meters took him 26 minutes. He was also unprepared for the antinausea conditioning in the whirling vestibular chair. ... Within minutes, he was spewing borscht all over his blue spacesuit.”

Does that sound like something you’d pay $20 million for?

Tags: Space Travel, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for Profile of a Space Tourist

Sophie 08.21.08 | 6:21 PM ET

No. I won’t even get on a flightseeing helicopter.

Steven A 08.24.08 | 11:30 AM ET

I am all for the sub-orbital spaceflights. In reality I am like the majority of Americans who do not have a spare $250,000 to give to Virgin Galactic. I have been studing the eSpaceTickets.com website and am impressed with their years of dedication to make space tourism a reality for the ordinary everyday person.

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