Cheapflights.com Takes You on an Out-of-This-World Trip

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Apr 21, 2015) -  With International Astronomy Day coming up on Saturday, April 25^th, and Star Wars Day, May the Fourth, just a few weeks away, the travel experts at Cheapflights.com, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, have been thinking about the world beyond our own. The team did a little stargazing to come up with the Top 10 Space Tourist Hot Spots where you can get in touch with your inner rocket scientist and explore the final frontier.

From space travel to UFO discoveries here on earth, tourism opportunities for space enthusiasts may be closer than you think as you will see in these six places and experiences to make our list:

• Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida - Since opening in 1967, Kennedy Space Center has attracted space enthusiasts to the Space Coast in central Florida. More than 1 million people annually visit the 70-acre facility named for U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Visitors can stand nose to nose with the Space Shuttle Atlantis, one of five space shuttles used by NASA that traveled 126 million miles during 33 space missions. Guests can also partake in 60 multimedia exhibits and simulators. The campus also gives visitors the chance to touch a moon rock, stand under the largest rocket ever flown, and experience what a shuttle launch is like through the five-minute simulator ride Shuttle Launch Experience. Space enthusiasts can also make reservations to have lunch with an astronaut.
  
  
• Area 51, Great Basin Desert, Nevada - Area 51 is an Air Force base in southern Nevada's Great Basin Desert. Conspiracy theorists believe Area 51 is home to the hidden wreckage of UFOs and that extraterrestrials are kept in alien autopsy rooms and their space crafts are parked in lots. Folks started claiming to see UFOs in the area beginning in the mid-20th century and the U.S. government's classification of details here continues to fuel speculation by some that we are not alone in the universe. UFO hunters often drive State Road 375, which the state designated as the Extraterrestrial Highway in 1996 for the numerous UFO and alien sightings purportedly witnessed along the road and its close proximity to Area 51. The nearby town of Rachel (population 98) caters to UFO hunters with local businesses like Little A'Le'Inn, an alien-themed motel, trailer park, restaurant and gift shop.
  
  
• H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, Vancouver, Canada - A gift from lumber magnate H.R. MacMillan to the citizens of Vancouver, the iconic planetarium opened in 1968. The center includes a planetarium, exhibit gallery and theater that features star shows and space-themed movies. For a full on out-of-this-world experience, opt to spend the night. Overnight guests will explore the Cosmic Courtyard, create their own bottle rockets, view the night sky through a special telescope and end the night with a Planetarium presentation.
  
  
• Zero-G Experience, multiple locations - Space enthusiasts who want to experience weightlessness without going to space have the chance to do so at a fraction of the cost with the Zero-G Experience. During a pricey 90- to 100-minute flight (a ticket is $4,950), passengers experience multiple periods of 30 seconds of reduced gravity or weightlessness achieved with 15 aerobatic maneuvers or parabolas performed during the flight. Travelers must be at least 8-years-old to fly on the modified Boeing 727. The five-hour experience includes an orientation, light breakfast, group photo, flight and a "Regravitation Celebration," which includes refreshments and distribution of photos. The price of the flight includes orientation, flight, refreshments, photos, a video of the flight, a certificate and a Zero-G suit. Flights routinely take off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Las Vegas, and San Jose, Calif.
  
  
• Roswell, New Mexico - The city in southeastern New Mexico was made famous when a flying saucer or, as the military reported, a weather balloon, crashed at a ranch near Roswell in 1947. Authorities in Roswell handled the wreckage and investigation of the crash, which became known as the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. Visitors can learn more about the incident at the International UFO Museum and Research Center, which aims to educate visitors on all aspects about UFOs.
  
  
• Space Adventures, Russia - For those who have dreamed of being an astronaut and taking flight, Space Adventures offers the chance for wannabe astronauts who have $35 million (price depends on trip length among other factors) to fly in the Russian Soyuz space craft to the International Space Station alongside professional astronauts for missions lasting 10 days or more. The company has booked eight flights to date sending seven wealthy citizens into space. Singer Sarah Brightman is currently undergoing training, and she is slated to fly with Space Adventures this year. Space Adventures will soon offer a journey around the far-side of the moon, coming within 62 miles of the moon's surface. The first lunar mission is scheduled to launch by 2018.
  
  

Rounding out our list of places where we earthlings can get a taste of the world beyond our own are: Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England; Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico; Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, Canary Islands, Spain; and Australian Astronomical Observatory, New South Wales, Australia. To read the "out-of-this-world" details on these and Cheapflights.com's complete Top 10 Space Tourist Hot Spots, visit www.cheapflights.com/news/top-10-space-tourist-hot-spots.

About Cheapflights.com, part of the Momondo Group

Momondo Group is an online travel media and technology company that is driven by the belief that an open world is a better world. The group now serves travel search and inspiration to over 17.5 million visitors a month -- plus 7 million travel newsletter subscribers -- via its Cheapflights (www.cheapflights.com) and momondo (www.momondo.com) brands.

Skygate began the sourcing of complex air-travel data in 1992, while Cheapflights pioneered the online comparison of flight deals for users in 1996 and momondo launched meta-search in the Nordic countries in 2006.

The Group has offices in London, Copenhagen and Boston with a consumer base across more than 30 core international markets but users all over the world.

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