LYNX Space Programme is offering Indonesia’s ultra-wealthy an out-of-this-world space travel programme, after its launch in Singapore last year.
Spanning five days and four nights, participants will be familiarised with all aspects of a suborbital flight, climaxing with a one-hour space travel experience.
“To make the flight safer and more enjoyable, they will engage in medical screenings, seminars, altitude chamber training and a g-force experience,” said lifestyle travel consultant, John B Sutherland.
Sutherland, XCOR Aerospace and Space Expedition Corporation’s partner in Asia, is working with MillionaireAsia Indonesia to promote the programme. Test flights are due to start in the next few months, and interested parties should be able to venture into space by the end of this year or the beginning of 2014.
“In the last few months, there has been tremendous interest in Lynx, with a large increase in ticket sales (from outside Indonesia),” he said. “I’m excited to find out who will be the first astronaut from Indonesia.”
Sutherland said that 200 tickets had been sold so far, each priced at US$95,000 per person. To book a slot, space enthusiasts must first cough up US$50,000 or pay the amount in full to ensure he or she is among the first 100.
Wita Tour’s director of sales, Rudiana, said: “There are Indonesians who do not only have the money to spend, but also like visiting places where nobody has been to before. It is a (matter of) prestige. So I’m sure there is a market – although really small.”
