Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

CEO Discusses Space Adventures

Aired September 21, 2002 - 09:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So you want to go to space? You don't have $20 million for a spot on the Soyuz, give or take? There's some slightly cheaper options to get that astronaut-like thrill.
Joining us now to talk about travel on the rather exotic side, Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, a company that's been around since '97, has been instrumental in brokering deals for rides on Russian rockets and other things as well.

Eric, good to see you.

ERIC ANDERSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, SPACE ADVENTURES: Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: How is business?

ANDERSON: Business is good.

O'BRIEN: Yes?

ANDERSON: Yes. There are a lot of people and a lot of experiences that can be done for less than the $20 million that people always hear about. So business is growing, and business is good.

O'BRIEN: Well, first of all, let's talk about Lance Bass, since we've been talking way too much about Lance Bass, but here we are. There's Lance in the centrifuge in Moscow. You know, his spiky hair headed in the horizontal direction in there, probably.

But does that hurt your efforts, when a deal like that becomes so public, so out there, and in the final analysis, they can't put the dead presidents on the table?

ANDERSON: Well, you know, Miles, I still hope Lance is able to find a way to go to space. It's a more difficult proposition, since he's not willing or got the business model of paying for it himself. Having been the company to put the first and only two space tourists up, you know, we know there's a lot of other people out there and a lot of other people wanting to do other stuff.

So, you know, I'm disappointed he's not going to fly, but we think the business will be fine.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's back up a little bit and remind folks about Dennis Tito, who you were instrumental in getting to space. There were other folks involved with this as well, in fairness to the record. Dennis Tito literally browbeat his way into the space station over objection by NASA. He initially was going to fly to Mir. Mir went deep-sixed. He still went after it.

How many, you know, people like that are out there that have the dream, the persistence, and, you know, $20 million in pocket change lying on the top of their dresser?

ANDERSON: Well, what's really interesting is, after last year's Tito flight, we found an incredible number of people all around the world, men, women, from the United States, outside the United States, obviously, with Mr. Shuttleworth, that really have said and are committed and have the financing to go to space themselves, even though it's, you know, a multimillion-dollar proposition, it's something that a lot of people want to do, it's a life-changing experience.

As Mr. Tito said, which I often quote, you know, he said, "If I had 20 million and 1 dollar, I would have spent it, and spent the rest of my life getting back to where I am, because it was such a meaningful experience."

O'BRIEN: Yes, all right. Well, let's talk a little bit about some of the other options for folks out there who might not have that kind of change. Let's go to your Web site for just a minute, that's spaceadventures.com is the place to find this.

And one of the things that you're touting there, and it's not quite ready for prime time just yet, are suborbital flights on this Cosmopolis XII. Tell me about this.

ANDERSON: Absolutely. Well, when we started Space Adventures, we of course had two visions. One was to provide all the different types of space experiences here on earth, which we'll talk about. And the second was to provide people with actual space flights.

And the space flights we had in mind were a little bit less expensive than orbital flights to the space station. Suborbital flight, like the first two American astronauts did, Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, is a proposition where you can fly for 30 or 40 minutes in space, reach an altitude of over 100 kilometers, come back down, and do the whole thing for about $100,000.

O'BRIEN: Hundred thousand?

ANDERSON: That's right.

O'BRIEN: So that opens it up to a whole different, albeit well- healed, market.

ANDERSON: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: How many takers out there for that? I mean, you don't have a rocket ship yet, you're working on that. But as I understand it, there are people that are actually, you know, getting in line. ANDERSON: Well, interestingly enough, when we announced the program, we had so many people calling in, companies, individuals, from all around the world, who wanted to be one of the first, that we had to set up a system to hold reservations. And we now have over 100 reservations with people waiting to go who have actually paid deposits into a trust account and are ready to fly.

O'BRIEN: All right. A little while before that vehicle is ready, though, right?

ANDERSON: Well, we're anticipating two to three years till test flights, and then another year or two afterwards until flight operations begins. But Miles, we've got companies all around the world with an, you know, an extreme resume of excellent aerospace experience.

The Russian design bureau that built the Russian space shuttle, companies here in the United States that have done, you know, really high-tech aerospace projects, that are going to pull this off. And it's not just one company, it's several.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's get down into the more bargain- basement areas, if you can call it that, in space adventure. Among the things you offer are rides on the Russian version of the Vomit Comet. Let's take a look at the Web site first, and we'll show you what they offer there.

How much for this, Eric? What are we talking in round numbers?

ANDERSON: For the zero gravity part?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ANDERSON: About $5,400 for the package.

O'BRIEN: Fifty-four hundred dollars. And not on NASA's, we got to be clear on this. We've been using the NASA pictures. But the Russian version of that.

The other thing you also offer are fighter rides, MiG-29s, for example. What does it cost to do that, and how many takers are there out there for those sorts of experiences?

ANDERSON: Well, we have hundreds of people per year going through our flight adventures, as we call them. The MiG flights and edge-of-space flights are about $12,000 or $13,000, you fly on the world's fastest combat aircraft. It takes you up, for instance, the MiG-25, up over 20 kilometers, where you can see the curvature of the earth. The sky is black above, and, you know, blue below.

It's just an amazing, unique experience that you can't find anywhere else.

O'BRIEN: What's your -- I mean, you got to be bullish, because you're an entrepreneur, and this is your business. But this is not an easy business, and tourism has been something that's been talked about really ever since the space age began. It seems like it's always five or 10 years off on the horizon.

Is something going to change to really break this open for you?

ANDERSON: Well, I think the advent of the suborbital flight is really going to make a big change, because it's going to provide -- be able to provide this experience to a much greater percentage of the population. I mean, people spend $100,000 to go to Mount Everest or Antarctica or go on high-end safaris and things like that.

But the other thing is, is that I think this industry is different, because people in general, the world, it's -- space is such a popular theme, and people watch movies about space and read books and go to the Air and Space Museum, which is the world's most visited, and they really take a passion to it.

And I think we've, you know, been lucky to attract those people, and, you know, viewers out there who are interested in space, aviation, and the future should participate (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in one of our programs.

O'BRIEN: Are you having fun?

ANDERSON: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: All right. Eric Anderson, the CEO of Space Adventures. You can see them on the Web at spaceadventures.com. They're based in the Washington area.

Thanks for being with us, we appreciate it, Eric. Good luck.

ANDERSON: Thank you, Miles, take care.

O'BRIEN: You call it a high-flying business, I suppose.

CALLAWAY: I wouldn't do the Vomit Comet. But I don't know if you could get me on a rocket.

O'BRIEN: Really?

CALLAWAY: No.

O'BRIEN: Oh, come on. Go the distance.

CALLAWAY: Well, you know...

O'BRIEN: Go the distance. Why not?

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 21, 2002 - 09:25   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So you want to go to space? You don't have $20 million for a spot on the Soyuz, give or take? There's some slightly cheaper options to get that astronaut-like thrill.
Joining us now to talk about travel on the rather exotic side, Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, a company that's been around since '97, has been instrumental in brokering deals for rides on Russian rockets and other things as well.

Eric, good to see you.

ERIC ANDERSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, SPACE ADVENTURES: Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: How is business?

ANDERSON: Business is good.

O'BRIEN: Yes?

ANDERSON: Yes. There are a lot of people and a lot of experiences that can be done for less than the $20 million that people always hear about. So business is growing, and business is good.

O'BRIEN: Well, first of all, let's talk about Lance Bass, since we've been talking way too much about Lance Bass, but here we are. There's Lance in the centrifuge in Moscow. You know, his spiky hair headed in the horizontal direction in there, probably.

But does that hurt your efforts, when a deal like that becomes so public, so out there, and in the final analysis, they can't put the dead presidents on the table?

ANDERSON: Well, you know, Miles, I still hope Lance is able to find a way to go to space. It's a more difficult proposition, since he's not willing or got the business model of paying for it himself. Having been the company to put the first and only two space tourists up, you know, we know there's a lot of other people out there and a lot of other people wanting to do other stuff.

So, you know, I'm disappointed he's not going to fly, but we think the business will be fine.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's back up a little bit and remind folks about Dennis Tito, who you were instrumental in getting to space. There were other folks involved with this as well, in fairness to the record. Dennis Tito literally browbeat his way into the space station over objection by NASA. He initially was going to fly to Mir. Mir went deep-sixed. He still went after it.

How many, you know, people like that are out there that have the dream, the persistence, and, you know, $20 million in pocket change lying on the top of their dresser?

ANDERSON: Well, what's really interesting is, after last year's Tito flight, we found an incredible number of people all around the world, men, women, from the United States, outside the United States, obviously, with Mr. Shuttleworth, that really have said and are committed and have the financing to go to space themselves, even though it's, you know, a multimillion-dollar proposition, it's something that a lot of people want to do, it's a life-changing experience.

As Mr. Tito said, which I often quote, you know, he said, "If I had 20 million and 1 dollar, I would have spent it, and spent the rest of my life getting back to where I am, because it was such a meaningful experience."

O'BRIEN: Yes, all right. Well, let's talk a little bit about some of the other options for folks out there who might not have that kind of change. Let's go to your Web site for just a minute, that's spaceadventures.com is the place to find this.

And one of the things that you're touting there, and it's not quite ready for prime time just yet, are suborbital flights on this Cosmopolis XII. Tell me about this.

ANDERSON: Absolutely. Well, when we started Space Adventures, we of course had two visions. One was to provide all the different types of space experiences here on earth, which we'll talk about. And the second was to provide people with actual space flights.

And the space flights we had in mind were a little bit less expensive than orbital flights to the space station. Suborbital flight, like the first two American astronauts did, Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, is a proposition where you can fly for 30 or 40 minutes in space, reach an altitude of over 100 kilometers, come back down, and do the whole thing for about $100,000.

O'BRIEN: Hundred thousand?

ANDERSON: That's right.

O'BRIEN: So that opens it up to a whole different, albeit well- healed, market.

ANDERSON: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: How many takers out there for that? I mean, you don't have a rocket ship yet, you're working on that. But as I understand it, there are people that are actually, you know, getting in line. ANDERSON: Well, interestingly enough, when we announced the program, we had so many people calling in, companies, individuals, from all around the world, who wanted to be one of the first, that we had to set up a system to hold reservations. And we now have over 100 reservations with people waiting to go who have actually paid deposits into a trust account and are ready to fly.

O'BRIEN: All right. A little while before that vehicle is ready, though, right?

ANDERSON: Well, we're anticipating two to three years till test flights, and then another year or two afterwards until flight operations begins. But Miles, we've got companies all around the world with an, you know, an extreme resume of excellent aerospace experience.

The Russian design bureau that built the Russian space shuttle, companies here in the United States that have done, you know, really high-tech aerospace projects, that are going to pull this off. And it's not just one company, it's several.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's get down into the more bargain- basement areas, if you can call it that, in space adventure. Among the things you offer are rides on the Russian version of the Vomit Comet. Let's take a look at the Web site first, and we'll show you what they offer there.

How much for this, Eric? What are we talking in round numbers?

ANDERSON: For the zero gravity part?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

ANDERSON: About $5,400 for the package.

O'BRIEN: Fifty-four hundred dollars. And not on NASA's, we got to be clear on this. We've been using the NASA pictures. But the Russian version of that.

The other thing you also offer are fighter rides, MiG-29s, for example. What does it cost to do that, and how many takers are there out there for those sorts of experiences?

ANDERSON: Well, we have hundreds of people per year going through our flight adventures, as we call them. The MiG flights and edge-of-space flights are about $12,000 or $13,000, you fly on the world's fastest combat aircraft. It takes you up, for instance, the MiG-25, up over 20 kilometers, where you can see the curvature of the earth. The sky is black above, and, you know, blue below.

It's just an amazing, unique experience that you can't find anywhere else.

O'BRIEN: What's your -- I mean, you got to be bullish, because you're an entrepreneur, and this is your business. But this is not an easy business, and tourism has been something that's been talked about really ever since the space age began. It seems like it's always five or 10 years off on the horizon.

Is something going to change to really break this open for you?

ANDERSON: Well, I think the advent of the suborbital flight is really going to make a big change, because it's going to provide -- be able to provide this experience to a much greater percentage of the population. I mean, people spend $100,000 to go to Mount Everest or Antarctica or go on high-end safaris and things like that.

But the other thing is, is that I think this industry is different, because people in general, the world, it's -- space is such a popular theme, and people watch movies about space and read books and go to the Air and Space Museum, which is the world's most visited, and they really take a passion to it.

And I think we've, you know, been lucky to attract those people, and, you know, viewers out there who are interested in space, aviation, and the future should participate (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in one of our programs.

O'BRIEN: Are you having fun?

ANDERSON: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: All right. Eric Anderson, the CEO of Space Adventures. You can see them on the Web at spaceadventures.com. They're based in the Washington area.

Thanks for being with us, we appreciate it, Eric. Good luck.

ANDERSON: Thank you, Miles, take care.

O'BRIEN: You call it a high-flying business, I suppose.

CALLAWAY: I wouldn't do the Vomit Comet. But I don't know if you could get me on a rocket.

O'BRIEN: Really?

CALLAWAY: No.

O'BRIEN: Oh, come on. Go the distance.

CALLAWAY: Well, you know...

O'BRIEN: Go the distance. Why not?

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com