2009 Solar Eclipse Tours: China offers Spaceflight Tour.

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China offers a new twist to the 2009 Solar Eclipse Tours:

There has been a lot of talk lately about 2009 solar eclipse tours- “Get yours before it’s too late”.  The best place to see the eclipse is parts of Asia, and China is one of the prime destinations.  However, the Chinese Space Agency is offering a new twist for those who want to brag about being closest to the eclipse.  They are offering a 1 month space tour called the Boomerang Eclipse Sun Tour.  As a way to provide funds for their space agency, and to test some of their equipment for a lunar landing in 2020, they will be offering 6 people a trip of a lifetime.  The Sun Seeker ship will hold 6 space tourists, plus 2 crew members.  It will leave Earth 3 weeks before the lunar eclipse, pick up speed through a combination of solar sail technology and an “undisclosed space travel technology”, and reach mercury, for a close up and personal view of the solar eclipse.  It will orbit Mercury about 20 times, picking up speed, and then boomerang back to the Earth within 1 week, much faster than any spaceship has previously traveled. 
“What is most exciting to us, is that we can finally prove our technology and equipment is far superior to that of any other nation, and even superior to other nations’ dreams.  In addition, we want to work with other nations to develop space travel technology, and this will demonstrate we are more than up for the task”, Said Ling Chen, a supervisor in the program.  “No one has ever seen a solar eclipse from so close to the sun. To watch the sun suddenly disappear, right in front of our sweating eyes, this will be an amazing moment of technological evolution.”
Tickets on for the BEST Solar Eclipse Tour are unsurprisingly not cheap. They go for three million dollars each, or four million for first class.  An official from PriceLine.com says they expect to have one or two last minute tickets available for about half that price.

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