posted 07-14-2010 03:48 PM            

Space Travelers Emporium

The Space Travelers Emporium is a store opening in July in a pedestrian-friendly area of South Park (30th St and Grape St). The store is operated by the San Diego Space Society ("SD Space"), a non-profit organization. It's designed to be a classroom, project lab, and meeting place for local space enthusiasts, plus a storefront that provides both financial support for the lab and outreach to the community.

The storefront is a blend of in-stock products (t-shirts, posters, patches), special order items (books, model rockets, electronics, actual space suits), and travel-agency-style ticketing (Zero-G flights, suborbital space flights, astronaut training).

Governing members of the San Diego Space Society, a two-year-old organization dedicated to space exploration education and outreach, will soon be in the business of sending people into space.

SDSS President Jesse Clark and Secretary Chris Radcliff said the new Space Traveler's Emporium, opening at the corner of 30th and Grape streets on July 17, will be one of the first space-tourism travel agencies.

"We're going to sell things that people would probably buy if they were traveling to space, because there is a possibility that you can actually do that now," Clark said.

The storefront is designed like a small gift shop, selling posters, T-shirts, and even space suits -- currently modeled by a mannequin that Clark has nicknamed Marsha White. More importantly, the Emporium will offer tickets for suborbital flight--near-space sightseeing flights set to begin by 2015--for the hefty fee of $100,000 to $200,000 a person.