In the lead-up to Cosmonautics Day, online flight search engine Skyscanner has compiled a list of iconic destinations for space enthusiasts.
Point #1 is Star City in the Moscow region. Here you can experience weightlessness on a special Il-76 training plane. Feel like Yuri Gagarin in special simulators, learn to pilot the Soyuz spacecraft, and try meat from tubes. A zero-gravity flight will cost 200,000 rubles, while a tour of Star City with transfer from Moscow starts at 850 rubles, depending on the size of the group.
Another option for getting closer to space is to visit Baikonur and witness a spacecraft launch. The tour, which includes watching the rocket launch, a visit to the launch pad, a tour of the cosmodrome, and a visit to Gagarin's cabin, costs between 41,000 and 65,000 rubles. The next rocket launch is scheduled for June 6.
For $50, you can visit the Kennedy Space Center, the operating American spaceport at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Visitors can stroll through the rocket park, explore the spacecraft assembly shops, visit the mission control center, and see the capsule in which the astronauts returned from the Moon. The especially lucky ones can even watch a rocket launch.
In the second half of 2018, the first hot air balloon flights into the stratosphere will begin in Spain. For €110,000, tourists will be able to comfortably and safely ascend to an altitude of 36-39 km in a closed capsule with a parachute. Book this experience now.
Other special space-related destinations include the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the first privately owned Spaceport America in New Mexico, the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan (which is completely free to visit), and the SpaceX headquarters in California. The most expensive experience for space enthusiasts is a crewed flight to the ISS. Roscosmos, in partnership with the private company Space Adventures, offers such tours. A trip to orbit costs just $40 million. For an additional $3 million, tourists can enjoy a spacewalk.
Source: news.turizm.ru