THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 17 March 2007 — A travel freak from a village in Kerala, who received confirmation for a space journey scheduled next year, says he intends to film the space journey by his camera.
“It’s not merely the fancy of traveling into space, feeling zero gravity and seeing the globe from above that thrilled me. I can take my camera on board and cover the space journey, besides gaining access to Virgin Galactic footage,” said Kottayam-based publisher Santosh George Kulangara.
Kulangara is the only Indian to be among a group of lucky individuals who received a letter of confirmation last week from Virgin Galactic — one of the two US-based space tour operators that plan to take 500 tourists in 2008.
Kulangara, whose travelogue serial is one of the most popular television programs that is running for the sixth consecutive year without break, was allotted the Voyager reservation number 38 after paying $20,000 in advance. This was confirmed in a letter sent to him by Will Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic’s president.
The flight now costs $200,000 and Kulangara hopes it will come down further. Passengers can spend six minutes in the no-gravity zone and the lucky ones can even try a short space walk.
The spaceship offers‚ “the world’s affordable space tourist flights” which consists of a roughly two-hour-long flight reaching 3,000 miles per hour more than 60 miles above earth. A single flight can carry six tourists and two pilots.
“As one of our voyagers, you will be a trailblazer in a new industry that we hope eventually will open space to many thousands of people. You will return from your flight as a fully-fledged astronaut and will have secured your place in history,” Whitehorn’s letter says.
Kulangara, who is a director of the one-billion-rupee Labor India group that specializes in publishing, education and tourism, has become an instant hero as the first Indian space tourist.
“Traveling, no matter how short or long, has always been encouraged by all in my family, especially my father. My father encouraged me saying seeing unknown places would help develop our outlook on life,” Kulangara, 35, said.
“I have already traveled 50 countries with my camera for Sancharam (his weekly travelogue program on Asianet) and I’m still on the move. This is, well, an extension of it and I’m thrilled. It’s a message and motivation to the young generation,” he added.
The take-off will be from the US. Virgin’s craft for the sub-orbital flight is being put to shape at Rutan’s base in Mojave, California. “What I’m told is that it will be ready by the end of 2007. The actual journey will take place sometime in mid-2008,” said Kulangara.
“I’m really looking forward to the flight. I’m not at all nervous. Space tourism will soon become so common that it will be like taking a flight from London to New York,” he added.
Kulangara has been asked to report for pre-departure training a week before the flight along with his five co-travelers.
Two hundred rich daredevils have already bought the most expensive tickets to the space odyssey on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two. Kulangara contacted the company in 2004 as soon as the first commercial space flight took off.
When he again contacted them in August last year, they took his registration and sent him the terms and conditions and flight charges.
More than 100,000 space tourists have applied for the first batch of 200 tickets. “According to their current bookings, I am likely to be on the sixth or the seventh space trip,” said Kulangara.
“They have agreed to let me film the entire journey and it would be another episode for my Sancharam. I am overjoyed as this will help me bring space nearer to the common man,” he added.
