Space-X, Virgin Galactic Travel Tips From a Veteran Space Tourist

March 22, 2017 5:00 am
Travel Tips for the Would-Be Space Tourist
Space shuttle Atlantis is seen as it launches from pad 39A on Friday, July 8, 2011, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The launch of Atlantis, STS-135, is the final flight of the shuttle program, a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. (Bill Ingalls/NASA/Handout/Corbis via Getty Images)
Travel Tips for Would-Be Space Tourists
Richard Garriott de Cayeux speaking at the 2013 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. (Sean Mathis/Getty Images for SXSW)

 

Space-X is sending upstart rocket-men (and -women) to space soon. And Stephen Hawking is apparently heading out there, too, via Virgin Galactic. So what might new space tourists expect after strapping in and blasting out of Earth’s atmosphere?

Richard Garriott de Cayeux knows from personal experience. And it’s not entirely pretty.

In Bloomberg‘s interview with Garriott de Cayeux, the veteran space traveler reveals that type of travel involves a bit more than just swallowing a protein pill and strapping on a helmet. Garriott de Cayeux, who paid $30 million to spend 12 days on the International Space Station, told the publication, “My advice to [space tourists] would be to medicate early and often.”

There are a number of reasons why this is the case. For one, the effects of weightlessness on the body make you “… [feel] sort of like lying on a children’s slide, head down. In the first days, you get very stuffed up and have a bit of a headache,” says Garriott de Cayeux. He also talks about a general feeling of “sea sickness” and sensation of “falling backwards.”

All of this, thankfully, can be treated with common household medicines like aspirin or Sudafed.

Watch a video of Garriott de Cayeux juggling in space below.

—RealClearLife

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