LIFT OFF

Meet the entrepreneurs providing a rarified clientele with a luxurious, once-in-a-lifetime journey.

- CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN

SO YOU WANT to go to space. To take in the expansive curvature of the Earth glowing miles above the atmosphere, surrounded by pure darkness. To experience the mind-altering overview effect described by astronauts as a transcendent state of awe, staring back at the planet on which you've inhaled your every living breath.

But for a civilian, traveling to space is an arduous journey. First, there's the price. The known cost of an 11-minute flight on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket is $1.25 million. Then, of course, there are physical demands. After months of training, you must be able to climb seven flights of stairs in 90 seconds. And liftoff is a shock to the body. The first two minutes are a vertical climb accelerating to more than 2,000 miles per hour, compressing the body with up to 4 g's of force, which former NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence has described as feeling like "somebody just sat down on my chest."

After the rockets detach from the capsule, the g-forces suddenly vanish and you begin to feel weightless. On a tourist flight, you have about two minutes to unbuckle and orient your shocked body while trying to take in the incredible view. Then it's fasten-your-seat-belts time, and another physical shockplummeting to the Earth. That's about $625,000 per actual minute of existence in near space, possibly slicked with vomit.

Now, consider an alternative.

You wake up in a five-star hotel to a glorious sunrise at one of the greatest natural sites of the world, say, the edge of the Grand Canyon, or Australia's Great Barrier Reef. You leisurely walk onto the hotel's launch pad, and step into a gleaming metal capsule roughly the size of a dining room. You sink into a plush couch or leather reclining chair, which swivels around so you can take your choice of views from the 360-degree windows. Your five to seven fellow passengers will be seated too, as will two crew members-a concierge and an operator.