Helsinki man buys a ticket for spaceflight

Two-hour space jaunt costs EUR 145,000 - the price of a summer cottage

print this

Relieved. That is how 43-year-old IT worker Vesa Heilala from Helsinki describes his state of mind after he had bought a ticket for a spaceflight at a travel agency two weeks ago.
     
Heilala made his decision rapidly after he had heard the news on the first Finnish space tourist in January.
      ”I thought that the tickets would be sold out, or that I would have to wait for my turn for a terribly long time”, Heilala says slowly.
      After answering a phone call - perhaps the 100th of the day - he says that he is a little surprised at the vast interest his spaceflight has attracted.
     
Heilala is the second Finn who is willing to pay USD 200,000 - according to today’s rate roughly EUR 145,000 - in order to get himself on a spaceflight with Virgin Galactic, a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
      The flight itself will take a couple of hours, while the space travellers will have an opportunity to enjoy floating weightlessly in the air for around five minutes.
      ”I will give up buying a summer cottage”, Heilala says. The booking fee relieved him of USD 20,000, but he has still some savings left.
      ”I will naturally try to get some sponsors, as for example polar trekkers and mountaineers do”, Heilala notes.
      ”But if I were not prepared to pay for it, what would I be doing here?” the Helsinki man asks.
     
Heilala digs into his bag and shows some comic books he used to read as a child: an issue of Avaruusmatka (”Space Voyage”) from 1974 and an issue of 1999 - Tuntematon tulevaisuus, a Finnish science fiction comic book published at the beginning of the 1980s.
      Heilala notes further that today he is not an actual space enthusiast. In fact, he is more interested in the adventure aspect. But what exactly: weightlessness, the scenery of the earth, the flight itself?
      ”I cannot name only one of them”, Heilala says.
     
Later on, Heilala adds yet another reason for his spaceflight.
      ”It is good if I with my own microscopic input can have an influence on the development of space technology. Maybe some day there will be aircraft that can fly to New York in one hour”, Heilala contemplates.
      Virgin Galactic plans to launch its spaceflights next year. Heilala’s turn could be in 2012. But nothing is certain.
      ”I would not want to waste my time, if I did not believe that we will go there”, Heilala concludes.
     
While waiting for his spaceflight, Heilala intends to write on his blog: www.suomalainenastronautti.fi.
      At least so far the entries seem all to be in Finnish, but who knows what the future holds.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Two space flights sold to Finns (21.1.2010)
  President takes phone call from International Space Station (4.8.2009)

Links:
  Virgin Galactic (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat