Do you want to travel to space? 1st stop: Sarasota

By SARA KENNEDY
SARASOTA --A local travel agency is marketing an unusual product: trips to space.

Ryan Hilton, co-owner of Admiral Travel Gallery of Sarasota and Lakewood Ranch, is among 47 exclusive agents worldwide selling Virgin Galactic's commercial flights into space.

The trips aren't for everyone. For one thing, they cost $200,000 for a few minutes of weightlessness. For another, the spacecraft for the flights is still being tested and flights aren't expected to start until 2009.

"It's not your average experience, price and contract," acknowledged Hilton Wednesday from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was about to take a group of tourists on a 10-day trip into the bush. "Because it's so new, that is probably the most exciting element. It's open to anyone."

Diana Cloud, 52, of Sarasota, has signed on for seat number 161 on the six-passenger spaceship to be launched from the Mojave Desert. The spaceship, which sits atop a jet carrier aircraft, flies to 50,000 feet before it leaves the mother ship and continues on to the edge of the atmosphere at 360,000 feet, or nearly 70 miles.

Virgin Galactic, owned by billionaire Sir Richard Branson, is offering the space travel.

Cloud, who will receive two days of training before the flight, is expected to be on the 30th trip from Earth. "It's very exciting. She's a pioneer," Hilton said.

He thought of Cloud for the trip because her previous jaunts had revealed a decidedly adventurous streak. She has flown in a supersonic jet in South Africa and experienced zero gravity in a 727 cargo jet.

"Once I realized it was a great product match for her, we presented it, gave her the details," said Hilton.

The aptly named Cloud, who runs a consulting company and is also a licensed pilot, said she was immediately fascinated about the idea of space travel because "I want to see Earth with my own eyes.

"It's everything about spiritual," she said. "If you've read interviews with the astronauts, they say they'll never be the same and I do believe that. I've been blessed to be successful in life, I have extreme gratitude for that. It's an opportunity of a lifetime."

The spacecraft, flown with two pilots, will fly nearly 2,500 mph to just beyond the Earth's atmosphere in a daylong trip. The company has not yet set a date for its first flight, according to the company Web site, www.virgin-galactic.com.

"It is these spaceships that will allow affordable suborbital space tourism for the first time in the history of the universe," the Web site said.

Hundreds of other passengers from every continent have signed up, as well, according to Hilton, but Cloud is the only one who has paid a deposit through his agency.

Hilton had to compete for the privilege of selling such trips by submitting a business plan. In January, he attended three days of training at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.

So, after hearing all the details, was Hilton tempted to sign up himself?

"I would do it in a heartbeat, maybe, one day," he laughed.