Well, it had to happen, didn’t it? If you are fed up with the planet Earth altogether, and really want to get away from it all, now you can even escape off up into space. Not very far, and not for very long, but just enough to see with your own eyes that the Earth really is round, and that space is dark and infinitesimal.
On the Go Tours specialise in group and tailor made tours that combine a mix of culture and adventure, and now they offer three new packages from Russia that give you the opportunity to take a ride in a centrifuge, experience weightlessness in an aircraft, and the unbelievable opportunity to take a look at the Earth from space.
Star City Centrifuge, is a mobile cab at the end of a long arm which goes round and round at high speeds, providing a thrilling seven minute experience where you are subject to such a g-force that you feel as if you are several times your normal weight. The centrifuge can also be used to create the sensation of weightlessness. It is centrifuges such as this that are used in the training of cosmonauts and military pilots.
If you want to experience more of being weightless, then why not try Star City Zero Gravity, which is a 1.5hr flight with experienced instructors which gives you a total of six minutes of zero gravity during the flight. Using the same method that was used to train cosmonauts, you achieve this in an aerobus IL-76 MDK aircraft which ascends sharply at a 45 degree ‘nose high’ angle, levels, and then starts to descend. At this point in the flight you experience apparent weightlessness for some 20 – 25 seconds. This happens fifteen times during the flight giving you a total of six minutes of floating around.
But perhaps the ultimate package is Space Flight, where you take an amazing flight up to the point where the atmosphere ends and space begins. You depart from a military airbase in Nizhny Novgorod which is a 1hr 20m transfer by plane from Moscow, and go up in a MIG-29, one of the most advanced planes in the Russian Air Force, with turbojet engines, great aerodynamics and a wonderful view from the cockpit. This thrilling 30 minute flight will actually bring you to the boundaries of space.
Yes indeed, this has to be the ultimate escape.
Star City Centrifuge and Star City Zero Gravity each cost £2,979. Space Flight comes in at £14,979 per person.
2 responses so far ↓
1 marianne // Sep 25, 2008 at 12:26 am
I didn’t know such holidays existed! I’d really love to try something like this, especially the “trip up to space”, (though it’s not really space), but the cost is just beyond my reach. Some day, some day.
2 Faye J // Dec 15, 2008 at 11:03 am
Probably not the holiday for me.
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