New methods and vehicles to travel above the Earth
are in development and will soon take flight. Among
the first will be the luxurious World View capsule
which will gently carry six passengers aloft by a large,
high-altitude balloon to over 100,000 feet—nearly 20
miles. At that altitude with virtually no atmosphere,
passengers will be able to view the curvature of the
Earth, witness the blackness of space with its countless
stars and marvel at the magnificent planet below.
World View Enterprises’ CEO Dr. Jane Poynter has
both the aerospace experience, business acumen and
enthusiasm to ensure flights in this unique spacecraft
Satoshi Takamatsu, one of Japan’s most successful
advertising executives and a serial entrepreneur,
remembers the day astronauts Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon in July 1969. He
watched as a young boy the live television broadcast as
Armstrong placed his boot on the lunar surface. For
him, it was an epiphany. Ever since that day, he has
carried the dream of one day, somehow, of going into
space. For Takamatsu, that dream is coming true.
“I started dreaming of launching to space when
I was six years-old [and] watched the
Apollo 11 lunar landing on TV. I am
delighted to be able to take advantage of
this opportunity to train as a cosmonaut.
I am excited to prepare myself alongside
professionals and to get their unique
insight as to what it takes to train for
a flight to space.”
Since January, Takamatsu has
undergone extensive training in Russia
at Star City, the cosmonaut training
center outside of Moscow. He is doing this through
arrangement with Space Adventures, headquartered
in Vienna, Virginia. Space Adventures has coordinated
the training and missions to the International
Space Station (ISS) of six men and the first female
spaceflight participant, Iranian-American entrepreneur
Anousheh Ansari.
He has experienced weightlessness in free-falling
training aircraft, endured several times his weight in a
centrifuge, built crude shelters during survival training,
studied Russian four hours a day, and is bolstering his
knowledge of Soviet spacecraft and systems.
He has also been fitted for his flight suit and
custom-formed seat for the capsule he will ride in
when the Soyuz rocket and spacecraft lift off from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in September.
It is a tremendous commitment by Takamatu both
physically and financially.
“Through his spaceflight training, Satoshi will
experience first-hand how our clients prepare to fly to
space on the Soyuz spacecraft and for life aboard the
International Space Station,” said Tom Shelley,
president of Space Adventures. “He will become a
member of an official space mission crew, a distinction
that less than 1,000 people have ever had.”
RIGHT
Satoshi
Takamatsu
will be the
first Japanese
spaceflight
participant
to travel up to
and spend time
aboard the
International
Space Station.
FAR RIGHT
The luxurious
World View
capsule will take
six voyagers on
a flight lasting
several hours.
SPACE TRAVEL
ST
“I started dreaming of launching to
space when I was six years-old [and]
watched the Apollo 11 lunar landing
on TV.”
— Satoshi Takamatsu
18
THE AFFLUENT TRAVELER
|
Space Travel
