Silicone Valley Luminary Trains for Space Travel

A spin around the earth may well be the next thrill of the century, but it will never be a cheap one. For those who might be wondering about their next earthly challenge, and who can afford to part with a few million bucks without feeling the pinch, a well-deserved spin around the surface of the earth might well be in order. Following in the footsteps of others, namely video games developer, Richard Garriott, Silicon Valley VIP, Esther Dyson, is the latest to start training for a space flight. She is an investor in Space Adventures , a company whose goal is to open space flight for private citizens and even though she won’t be flying soon, she will begin her training shortly.

She said of her up and coming preparation:

“The training is going to be exciting, wonderful and horrible. I am going in with some trepidation because I don’t know what’s really going to happen. But at the same time, I wanted a change.”

Last month, Space Adventures announced that Dyson had paid to train as a backup commercial astronaut for Charles Simonyi's trip to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-14 mission scheduled for 2009. She said of her inclusion in the training program:

“Space travel is today accessible only if you have the millions.”

Dyson may not be the richest of those who have traveled before her in space, but she is an industry visionary who invested in companies including Flickr and Powerset, among others. In 2004, she sold her company EDventure, which she owned for twenty years, to CNET Networks. She is the daughter of physicist, Freeman Dyson, and mathematician, Verena Huber-Dyson, sister to digital technology historian, George Dyson, and a graduate of Harvard University.

Have a great flight, Esther!

You can find out more about this unusual woman from links at www.edventure.com, and especially about Flight School. Or e-mail her at edyson@boxbe.com.