Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25238
r FRONT:: "Fly me to the moon, and let me play amongst the stars," sang Frank Sinatra back in yesteryear. Now, if you've got $2 million to spare, you can plan to do just that, and from the South Pacific no less. Starti ng in 2005, space touri sts can launch into low orbit from Tonga, a nation of tropical islands located about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand . InterOrbital Systems, a California company founded in 1995 to bui ld rockets and rocket systems, have chosen to launch from Tonga for practical reasons. The archipelago's remoteness in the Pacific wi ll allow rocket stages to fall back to earth harmlessly. Tonga's tropica l beauty and tourist appeal aren't bad either. After 45 days of hard-core train ing at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Space Training Center in Moscow and the InterOrbital Systems' astronaut t raining faci lit ies in Mojave, CA, kicking it with fru ity beverages in a tropica l paradise should clear the head before blast off. "From paradise to outer space and back to paradise is an interesting vacation," says Randa Milliron, InterOrbital co-founder and CEO. " It's also the highest form of adventure travel you can get. " This ain't no space shuttle either. The seven-day trip into space takes place in an old-school six-per- son rocket with new-school materials and fuels to keep the costs low. Accord ing to Milliron, "NASA and other space groups in the world are cartels. The space shuttle costs half a billion dollars each time it's launched. We're looking for something under six million. " With booster-stage rockets, a hotellike orbita l stage and a reentry capsu le, space tourists will launch from a commercial spaceport and resort the company is building on the Tongan is land of 'Eua. Two pi lots will navigate the spacecraft at 17,370 miles per hour while four passengers idle their time fl oati ng about and tak- ing in the view from 150 miles above earth . Somewhere, 'Ole Blue Eyes is smiling.-Michael Cervieri