Small Print On Cheaper Space Flight: It's Only One Way

Investigators seeking to determine the legitimacy of SpaceCraft, Inc.'s new offer to fly individuals into suborbital space for just $22,500, one eighth the price of Virgin Galactic's fee, told a hastily assembled Riverside, California news conference that the $22,500 space trip "is only one-way."

"You can get up to space for $22,500, no problem," Dick Rangel told reporters. "But good luck trying to get back."

SpaceCraft, Inc. is one of many small companies seeking to make money sending passengers into space.

"The company seems to be modeled on JetBlue," Rangel said. "No frills flying, a few snacks while in air, your own TV set at your seat with live cable, but the tickets are all one-way."

Rangel said that he was "uncertain" about what happened to SpaceCraft, Inc. passengers once they reached low-level geosynchronous orbit, but he "wasn't sure what had happened to their first two dozen passengers."

Rangel told reporters that the lack of a "frequent flyer" or loyalty program was also a tip-off that something was amiss.

"Their business model kind of contradicts both gravity and what Werner von Braun said almost half a century ago," Rangel said, "that what goes up must come down. We're hoping that the company can explain what happened to all of its past passengers.

"But I guess at under 25K to get into space, even one-way fares might have been too good a deal for people to pas up."