The Tourist's Guide to Space

It's time to start planning your trip beyond the atmosphere.

SPACEX

Space has it all. Circular mountain ranges! Metallic aster­oids! Geysers of sulfur! Oceans on a steady boil! It may just be the ultimate vacation destination. But how do you pack for the moon? What are you looking at for lodging? Will you get carsick in a rocket? In the era of space tourism, these are things you need to know. 

So here’s the first thing: They call it “The Over­view Effect.” It’s what happens when you see the Earth from space, all you’ve ever known just a glitter­ing orb in the cosmic empti­ness. Your sense of humanity grows. Your perception shifts. You are forever changed.

Sounds kind of scary. But then, isn’t it exactly why we travel?

What Launch Feels Like

Mike Massamino crewed on missions to the Hubble telescope in 2002 and 2009. His ride was the space shuttle, whose combination of solid and liquid fuels will also be used by NASA’s forthcoming Space Launch System, which will carry humans to deep space.

With liquid-fueled rockets, you can throttle the rocket, so they actually start up the main engines with six seconds to go in the launch count. They’re located at the bottom of the shuttle, so it sort of tips the vehicle forward a little bit. Then it comes back. And when it’s upright, you’re at zero. The solid rockets ignite—they are like giant sticks of dynamite. Before the shuttle clears the tower, you’re already going 100 mph. It accelerates from zero to 17,500 mph in only eight and a half minutes.

The sheer power of that, what it takes to get off the planet—I had a sensation after a minute or so like I was leaving home for the first time. I felt like this was my first time really, truly leaving home.

It’s a pretty rough ride for the first two and a half minutes, but then the solid rockets part from the vehicle. You continue to ride the liquid-fueled rockets to orbit. You get a buildup of G forces that peaks at about 3 Gs for the last two and a half minutes. It’s like having three big dudes sitting on you. A pile of bricks on your chest. And then, after eight and a half minutes, the main engines cut and the Gs disappear and you can feel yourself get lighter. All the shaking stops. The only noise you really hear is the humming of the air circulating and cooling fans. I had a pen on the end of a lanyard that kind of rose up and floated next to me. Your arms at your sides will rise up. And then I remember I took my helmet off. I saw Tom Hanks do it in Apollo 13, so I wanted to do it, too. I took my helmet off and put my helmet in front of me, and it floated.

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