Thorough Preperation
Some months before you will have undergone a thorough medical examination and successfully completed the 5 day training programme at Camelback Sanctuary Mountain Resort. You will have been familiarised with all technical and operational procedures of your flight to space, passed all relevant tests and received your certificate: „You have what it takes! You’re ready to fly!“
Breakfast with Rick
Your Lynx Pilot will be Astronaut Colonel (ret.) Richard Searfoss, who with many years space travel experience, has piloted both the „Columbia“ (STS-58) and „Atlantis“ (STS-76) space shuttles and was Commander aboard „Columbia“ (STS-90). In the morning you will take breakfast with Col.Searfoss when he and his crew will calm any nerves you may have and instill in you good feeling and confidence through their sheer professionalism and attitude towards safety.
The pressure is on!
You will be equipped with your pressurised flight suit. The moment you put it on you will imagine how NASA astronauts feel and look like, before they make their way to the start ramp and blast off to the stars. But now is the time to stop imagining and do it for real, you’re ready, now LET’S GO!
Now it gets serious!
A few minutes later you will be standing before the Lynx. This powerful rocket propelled aircraft will today carry you high in the sky, after which you will observe the Earth through completely different eyes. While you’re still wondering how you got yourself into this, you will be in the cockpit and fastened into the co-pilots’ seat, where your suit will be connected. Rick Searfoss with sit on your left hand side and commence take off preperations.
All systems go!
You will here the test ignition roar of five separate rocket engines and feel the push of the Lynx against its activated brakes. A few minutes later all flight preparations will have been made and Rick will ask you, „READY?“, your heart will start to pump faster and the adrenalin will flow inside your veins, and you reply, „READY TO GO!
The rockets will fire up and you will be forced further into your seat as the sheer pressure on your body becomes apparent.
The sky’s the limit? Not for you!
Shortly after the Lynx has taken off from the runway, Rick will rocket you vertically in the direction of the stars! WOW! Experience exactly how astronauts feel after blast off. Your body will become subject to g-force and you will feel noticeably heavier. Before your eyes the altimeter will spin but the unique view from the cockpit will convince you: in a few seconds you will already have left cloud cover behind!
Feeling Supersonic?
With your eye on the MACH meter you will think back to Chuck Yeager and his team who in October 1947 was the first human being to break through the sound barrier. The opinion in those days, that an attempt by any pilot and craft to achieve supersonic flight would only result in certain disaster, was firmly proved wrong by Yeager in his Bell X-1. He achieved the incredible speed of Mach 1, but you will see the needle on your meter indicate a speed of just over Mach 2 and some 3 minutes after take off you will find yourself at an altitude of 42 kilometres! You will see the sky change colour from blue to deep black as you enter the star filled limitlessness of the universe.
Weightless in space
The rocket engines will now be deactivated. You will float silently in the upper levels of the Earths’ atmosphere. A whole multitude of stars will twinkle before you, and that’s during the day! With a feeling of release you will notice the power of g-force on you reduce. The altimeter will tell you, that you are nearing the flight target altitude of 61 kilometres and you will feel like your body wants to be released from the chair. You will then be weightless!
An incomparable view
You will make every effort, to try and imprint every detail in your brain of the spectacular panorama that surrounds you. You will be able to see the Rocky Mountains and the Californian Baja peninsula, the surface of the Pacific will glisten in the reflected sunlight, the Earth slowly rotates way down beneath your feet: a unique impression that you will not only store in your memory but also forever, deep in your soul.
The universe calls
The Lynx will then become horizontal, enabling you to witness firsthand the incredible views of space. The radiating starlight in the vast eternal blackness beckons you but you want to enjoy a few further minutes of weightlessness and the breathtaking views from the cockpit.
Are you ready?
