Tag: Travel
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A taste of space on Earth: Astronaut training startup raises $4M to market way-out experiences
Brienna Rommes, Orbite’s chief astronaut trainer, guides participants in the Astronaut Orientation program through a presentation on spaceflight. (Photo Courtesy of Magali Maricot) Seattle-based Orbite says that it’s completed a $4 million funding round and sealed a strategic deal with Accor, one of the world’s leading hospitality companies, to advance its plans for offering space-oriented…
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Three options for seeing the solar eclipse, from expensive to iffy to absolutely free
Skywatchers gather at Seattle’s Gas Works Park to watch the progress of 2017’s solar eclipse. (GeekWire Photo) After a seven-year gap, a total solar eclipse is once again due to make a coast-to-coast run across North America, boosting popular interest (and airfares) to astronomical proportions. The track of totality for the April 8 eclipse doesn’t…
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Orbite begins the launch countdown for its commercial astronaut training programs
Participants in an astronaut orientation session float during a zero-G flight in France in 2021. (Orbite Photo) After getting its start in Seattle and testing its business model in France and Florida, a space travel venture called Orbite is ready to start signing up customers for private-sector astronaut training programs. And although it’ll be a…
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Try before you fly: Orbite sets schedule for luxurious astronaut orientation sessions
Orbite’s director of astronaut training, Brienna Rommes, enjoys a zero-G airplane flight. (Orbite Photo) Wanna take a ride to space? There’s a smorgasbord of spaceflight shaping up for paying customers, ranging from the suborbital tours planned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to the orbital trips offered by SpaceX. What will those rides be…
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Total eclipse dims the sun over the U.S., bringing delicious darkness
The eclipse as viewed from Bald Mountain, Idaho, photographed by Kevin Lisota. The purple coloring on the underside is an eclipse phenomenon known as Baily’s Beads, in which the craters on the moon’s surface allow partial sunlight to shine through. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) MADRAS, Ore. – The spectacle that skywatchers made years’ worth…
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Don’t panic, but be ready: Last-minute guide to the all-American solar eclipse
Cars are lined up on Highway 26 heading east from Prineville, Ore., several days before the total solar eclipse. (Ochoco National Forest Photo) It’s prime time at last for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse, America’s first coast-to-coast dose of totality in 99 years. Maybe you’re a veteran eclipse-chaser who’s been preparing for this since…
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Oregon’s prime solar eclipse zone braces for the agony and the ecstasy of totality
Oregon’s Mount Jefferson looms on the western horizon outside Madras. The fields on either side of the blacktop road will be turned into a “Solartown” campground for 4,900 tents during the runup to the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) MADRAS, Ore. – If there’s one thing central Oregon has in abundance,…
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Alaska Airlines sets up flight to chase total solar eclipse – with a two-seat giveaway
The black disk of a total solar eclipse hangs over the clouds during an Alaska Airlines flight in 2016. Passengers on an August flight should see a similar sight. (Robert Stephens via YouTube) Alaska Airlines has scheduled a flight from Portland to chase views of the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse over the clouds, but…
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It’s T-minus-2 months to solar eclipse: Officials brace for totality traffic jams
The moon’s shadow cones during a total solar eclipse. Observers on Earthwithin the smaller, central shadow, or umbra, see a total eclipse. Within the larger shadow, thepenumbra, observers see a partial eclipse. Credit: NASA The all-American total solar eclipse is still two months away, but federal and state agencies are already getting the word out…
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Oregon offers 1,000 campsites in eclipse zone – and they’re gone in 90 minutes
To accommodate overwhelming demand, Oregon state park officials freed up 1,000 campsites today for folks wanting to see a total solar eclipse on Aug. 21. They didn’t last long. The extra spots were made available for reservations at 8 a.m. – and by 9:25 a.m., they were sold out. No more state park sites will be…