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Spring Break 2014: The Final Frontier

  The sky literally isn’t the limit anymore, thanks to the XCOR Aerospace and Space Expedition Corporation, which have introduced the first aircraft that can…

The sky literally isn’t the limit anymore, thanks to the XCOR Aerospace and Space Expedition Corporation, which have introduced the first aircraft that can endure frequent repeat trips to sub-orbital levels. For all you non-astronauts out there, that’s about 100 kilometers, which isn’t too far in terms of space travel but will still make you feel entirely weightless.

The reusable vehicle will be capable of flying up to four flights per day, and is able to take off and land on a conventional airport runway. The Lynx, as this sports car of spacecrafts has been dubbed, is a two seater that is capable of making multiple trips a day. The flight will last four or five minutes, over various spots on the planet and the Lynx will turn upside down so that passengers can get an eyeful of Earth.

Because it’s a two seater, one of the passengers must pilot the mission. Oh yeah, and it costs about $95,000 per ticket. The gargantuan price tag will include the cost of preflight training sessions to prepare passengers for the experience. While this may seem like a steep ticket price, it is still cheaper than the company's competitors, such as Virgin Galactic's $200,000 price tag for a seat aboard its SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane. So, really, it’s a steal.

The Space Expedition Corporation will supposedly support an existing sales channel of over 100 high end adventure travel focused agents and agencies who have been certified as “Space Tourism Specialists” and XCOR and SXC together have already taken over 175 reservations from clients eager to launch aboard the Lynx spacecraft.

Watchmaker Luminox also recently announced a partnership with SXC to provide special timepieces for the firm's space tourists. The watches are being developed to withstand the G-forces that will be encountered during the flight — just so you can be sure to accessorize correctly.

And if you happen to have an extra $1 million lying around, you could be one of the first off-world adventurers to stay for five days in this orbiting hotel built by Russian company Orbital Technologies.

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