Going to space may hold other attractions, but floating weightlessly through the cabin has got to rank pretty high on the list of reasons to put your life in mortal danger by climbing aboard a rocket. So if it's weightlessness you're after, what company offers the best deal?
Surprisingly, it's not Virgin Galactic. In fact, its $200,000 rocket trips will only offer about 5 minutes of zero-G, making them a pretty crummy deal at $40,000 per minute of weightlessness. By contrast, Zero G Corporation gives you 7.5 minutes of zero-G (in 30-second increments) for less than $500 per minute -- without going into space at all, however. Even Space Adventures' reported $20 million tickets are not such a bad deal. At that price, Charles Simonyi paid about $2,000 per minute for his recent week-long float aboard the International Space Station.
The chart below shows the cost, per minute of weightlessness, for the three leading commercial zero-G vendors.
