Forget the beach, soon you can fly to space for spring break

(3/09/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- While the beach or the mountains will always be popular for spring breakers, in 2009 there might be a new hot spot - space.

Rodolfo Leyva loves dreaming about space. But like a lot of people, he thinks Space Center Houston may be closest he'll get.

Space hasn't really been easy to reach for most of us.

"I am too old, but it might be fun for my grand kids," said Joan Osterloh.

In 2004, Richard Branson and Burt Rutan changed the face of space. Rutan's space plane launched from another plane and took off for the outer limits.

"I will be going to space," said Branson.

Now Branson is confident you'll want to do it too.

"I'll see you up there," he said.

You can't buy a ticket on a US rocket and the Russians sell their tickets for about $20 million, which makes this cheaper, but not yet cheap. A ticket on Richard Branson's space plane will cost $200,000 dollars. And they need a $20,000 deposit up front just to save your spot.

"This is the ultimate luxury travel experience," said Accredited Space Agent Tara Hyland.

Clear Lake travel agents Tara Hyland and Dianne Vest are two of the only people on earth with tickets off the planet.

"It's an amazing business," said Accredited Space Agent Dianne Vest.

They're ready to sell you your ticket. Starting in 2009, it'll be a three day experience they say. The flight to space would be a few hours. The time in zero-g is just four minutes.

"Think about someone who wants to climb Mount Everest," said Hyland. "Once they were at the top, do they think about how many seconds they were there? It's about the experience."

One you can have the year after next for the right price. It's not yet affordable for Rodolfo.

"Unless I give my college fund or something," he said.

Clearly school kids and for that matter most of us, aren't in the market for a $200,000 trip to space, but Virgin Galactic says they've already sold more than 100 tickets and by 2010 or 2011 there could be daily flights.

More info: http://www.virgingalactic.com/

Think you want to make the trip? These Accredited Space Agents can help:
Tara Hyland 281-333-5297, Tara.Hyland@tq3navigant.com and Dianne Vest 281-333-2644, dndvest@hotmail.com
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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