Have an extra Rs.1.25 crore in your kitty? You can book a seat on a European plane that would take passengers to over 100 km in the sky -- enabling them to experience how being in space feels.
Astrium -- an Airbus Group company and European space leader -- is planning to test a spaceplane at 10,000 feet (3,048 metres) over Singapore in May this year.
If successful, a second drop test from 100,000 feet (30,480 metres) should follow next year, Astrium officials said.
The entire trip would last for about two hours.
The model for the May flight is 15 feet long and only a quarter of the size of the actual spacecraft.
It would be dropped by a helicopter and remotely controlled for a sea landing east of Singapore.
The actual spaceplane would take off and land conventionally from a standard airport runway using jet engines, according to a report in Space.com.
At an altitude of about 12 km, the rocket engine would be ignited and in only 80 seconds, the spacecraft would reach a 60 km altitude.
The rocket propulsion system would then be shut down as the plane’s inertia carries it on to over 100 km.
The vehicle would then use a cold gas reaction control system jets to position itself for atmospheric re-entry.
After slowing down during descent, the jet engines will be restarted for a normal landing at the airfield.
