Countdown Begins for Budget Space Tourism Lift Off on Skyscanner Site

    EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, April 02, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- While excitement is building about the increasingly imminent prospect of space tourism following Virgin Galactic's successful test flights in March, the prohibitive $200,000 price tag makes this a final frontier too far for many would be astronauts, so today Skyscanner announces the launch of cheap flights to space.

"Virgin Galactic is doing a brilliant job of creating excitement and raising awareness that space tourism is a real possibility, but this is not a one-rocket space race by any means and space travel doesn't have to cost the Earth," said Skyscanner co-founder Barry Smith. "The 'no frills' model has transformed air travel over the last decade, so it's no surprise a low-cost contender has emerged to make this market more accessible to all."

Low cost space travel venture Copenhagen Suborbitals - based in Denmark - is taking a no-frills approach in order to bring the cost of space travel back down to Earth. Prices per trip have not been finalized but are anticipated to substantially undercut the Virgin Galactic fare and half price discounts may be offered for one way tickets. There will be no in-flight service - partly because the spacecraft can actually only accommodate one person - no baggage allowance and no seating - passengers will have to stand throughout the duration of the space flight, although 'buttock and armpit support' will be available.

"We'd like to call this company the Ryanair of space travel but we can't - you don't have to pay extra for check-in baggage. In fact you can't take any baggage at all," said Barry Smith.

He concludes: "It's one small click for the user, but one giant leap for us as a company, opening up opportunities for our business to boldly go into some exciting new market niches. It's even possible we may see some interest from forlorn former Concorde passengers who miss the view on flights from New York to London. Although the flights are currently starting from a barge in the Baltic Sea, and I'm not actually sure where they're landing, so that may not be ideal for them."

Copenhagen Suborbitals is planning a test flight in June of this year, powering a spacecraft into a suborbital trajectory. Budding astronauts can follow progress as the company launches a series of rockets to validate and test performance before launching humans into space.

About Skyscanner.com
Skyscanner provides instant online comparison on flight prices for over 670,000 routes on over 600 airlines, including flights to Bangkok. With Skyscanner, users can browse without having to enter specific dates or even destinations, and Skyscanner is available in 20 different languages including Spanish, Chinese and French.

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Scot Carlson
www.skyscanner.com
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