Traveling technology getting us to infinity and beyond...almost.

Almost a century has passed since crossing the Atlantic in a luxury ocean liner was considered the crème de la crème of traveling. Since then tourism has changed quite a bit. 

Virgin Galactic is taking tourism literally to new heights with the introduction of actual space tourism!

Yep, you heard right! This new ability is pushing boundaries that previously were held only in the distant future of science fiction dreamers. 

This technology isn’t quite ready to visit the moon or take a lap around the International Space Station, but  XCOR (another company looking into space travel) spokesman Mike Massee told USA Today in an April 27 article that the suborbital tours would allow passengers to “see stars and easily the curvature of Earth. And aside from the visual experience … it's also the ultimate roller-coaster ride." 

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This adventure would certainly be the ultimate roller-coaster ride! According to the same USA Today article passengers will also experience genuine weightlessness from flying 68 miles into the air and being at the edge of space.

Thankfully, aerospace companies aren’t in too big of a rush to send civilians out to the stars. Both Virgin Galactic and XCOR are still in the testing and tweaking phases. Columnist Leonard David for Space Insider reported April 22 that Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo made its first flight in October of 2010. The most recent and longest flight lasted just over 14 minutes on April 22.

To be fair, these real-life spaceships do not resemble any traditional spaceship you might be envisioning.  The craft that six passengers and two pilots will be taken into space in (like SpaceShipTwo) will be launched from the center of its mother ship (WhiteKnightTwo) 50,000 feet in the air. All together it looks like this:

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The entire structure is very impressive. Composed of carbon composite construction rather than aluminum or another metal, SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo are relatively light and incredibly durable. 

The Virgin Galactic website spares no effort to show potential passengers the safety of their craft. President of Virgin Galactic Will Whitehorn expressed the importance of safety to Space News in an April 2006 

“For us, the biggest risk is a medical incident in space. Heart and blood circulation -- those are our big issues. SpaceShipTwo is designed so that the passengers would survive even a catastrophic failure of the craft during flight.”

iainclaridge.co.uk

With every precaution being taken to ensure that these spaceships are safe and functional, don’t be ready to take off with them quite yet. A ticket into space costs a pretty penny. An April 27 Time article reports a trip to space costing $20,000, however the goal of Virgin Galactic is to get the price down to the equivalent of an SUV.

For those desperately seeking the joys of space but don’t have the comfort of an extra $20,000 lining their pockets, don’t worry. Time released an article April 12 stating that Virgin Galactic is looking for Pilots/Astronauts to fly the spaceships!

Google going to new heights with its newest acquisition

I had always found it a little ironic that I could search Google for just about anything I could possibly imagine… except for airline tickets. 

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According to a July first 2010 press release made by ITA, those who were unhappy with this situation will be given reason to rejoice: Google, which had been looking to acquire ITA software for a while, was given a green light to purchase the software company. The only thing that stood in the way was the US Department of Justice.

Even if this software doesn’t sound familiar, chances are high that if you’ve ever booked your own flight, you have worked through the ITA system. This software is what runs the big online booking agencies like Kayak, Bing and Oribitz. ITA is also what airlines such as Continental, Southwest, and American Airlines use to book flights. 

Jia Lynn Yang announced in the Washington Post on April 8^th, after quite a few months and a few added constraints to the agreement, the DOJ as agreed to let Google make the $700 million purchase of the software! 

The Associated Press outlined a few of the newly added features to the purchase in this video:

What does this mean for you? All-in-all, not too much actually. 

Travelers just have one more place that they can look for their flights, and the regulations ensure that they will still be able to get competitive prices.

Google’s Senior Vice President of Commerce & Local Jeff Huber made it clear, both in Google’s official blog and in corporate negotiations, that the transition would be smooth and shouldn’t have a great negative effect on any of the parties involved:

It’s important to us that ITA continue with business as usual, providing great service to its business partners. We indicated last July that we would honor ITA’s existing contracts. Today we’ve formally committed to let ITA’s customers extend their contracts into 2016. We've also agreed to let both current and new customers license ITA’s QPX software on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms” into 2016

thenextweb.com

Being fair seems to be what much of the negotiations consisted of. David Grossman stressed in his March 1 article for USA Today the risks that would be run through the merger if it were to be handled as a Google takeover. If Google gave only its own fares preferential treatment over those of other ITA companies, all competition would be lost in creating affordable travel. This would hurt other companies and travelers.

Thankfully, this is not the case. Fair Search applauded the DOJ’s restraints by releasing a statement April 8 saying, “Today’s decision by the Justice Department to challenge Google’s acquisition of ITA Software is a clear win for consumers.”

There you go, travelers and Google lovers alike: a potentially perfect fusion between the world’s most popular search engine and the world’s premier ticket finder.

Should we celebrate with tickets to somewhere wonderful (bought through Google of course!)?