Bidding for a seat onboard a Blue Origin spaceship has reached a whopping $2.8 million.
As voyages get longer, training regimens will make sure humans can handle the trip.
Companies like Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin are gearing up to send tourists to the edge of space — and eventually, beyond — as soon as 2022. But for ordinary citizens, zero gravity and long flights could wreak havoc on their bodies.
Getting to space is a naturally challenging experience, especially for the human body. That's why the firms hoping to sell trips are taking a page from NASA's playbook and undertaking a rigorous training program for would-be travelers to mitigate things like muscle atrophy and bone loss that studies show can happen on trips outside the atmosphere.