I want to book a flight into space with Virgin Galactic, or space-x if possible.
What health considerations do they have to be able to take such a flight?
Are there any age/health restrictions?
Would the flight be insured for 'mis-haps' or technical errors?
You can start packing (and saving). Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist explains it all:
Good news for all you couch potatoes out there: You don't have to be in peak physical condition to make it to space.
The vast majority of people who want to fly to suborbital space and back are medically fit to do so, according to researchers at Virgin Galactic, which is developing the commercial spaceliner SpaceShipTwo.
"We have encountered only one or two [customers] for whom we have recommended that they do not take a flight with us," Virgin Galactic Chief Medical Officer James Vanderploeg said.
"In general, we have found, both through the academic research and by our own analysis, that the vast majority of people — even those with medical problems such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, joint replacements, lung disease and many other conditions — can safely undertake a spaceflight with proper precautions to make sure their medical conditions are well controlled," said Vanderploeg, who is also a professor of aerospace medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
As for flight insurance, aside from any informed consent or waiver of liability that may be required of passengers, that's a stickier issue, as described in this NerdWallet article by John Kuo
For tourists, space travel represents an exciting and unexplored frontier. For insurers, the prospect of insuring commercial space travel offers great opportunity, but it is also riddled with uncertainty.
Companies such as Space X and Virgin Galactic are taking steps to offer space tourism to the mainstream public. If Space X and Virgin Galactic succeed in providing mainstream commercial space flight, they will need to offer insurance. Insurance helps commercial space flight operators to better manage and assess risk and therefore allow them to grow. However, since commercial space flight is a fledgling industry, insurers will have trouble calculating insurance risks and premiums.
