Your own private space vacation

For those few people that can afford it, the latest vacation destination is low Earth Orbit. This is not simply a 30-minute ride in Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo on a parabolic lunch break just out of the atmosphere and back. This is an extended stay in a private space station.

There are already several spacecraft companies and billionaires competing to take tourists into orbit for real zero-g experiences. Bigelow Aerospace is developing inflatable space station modules.

SpaceX is working on a Dragon Capsule that will carry up to seven people. Boeing's Starliner will also carry seven passengers to orbit. Jeff Bezos has his own Blue Origin family of launchers and capsules for LEO ventures.

In the next few years there will undoubtedly be more than one private space "hotel" available for the ultimate "life experience." The necessities to have this experience are quite simple.

You need to be physically able to withstand the ride up, handle weightlessness for an extended period and be able to survive the reentry events. Of course, there is the matter of the price. It is safe to assume that will be in the tens of millions of dollars category. Oh, by the way, there is already a Wait List for standbys.