A Flight Like You’ve Never Experienced

By Craig Taylor

March 3, 2010

Two Florida residents have become the first to complete a new commercial space flight training program at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center.

Terence Witt, founder of Witt Biomedical and his wife Virginia took a flight in the same supersonic jet once used to train astronauts, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

The Witts purchased a four-day training program for $30,500 from Incredible Adventures. The package included security clearance, academic instruction, use of training equipment, one training flight in the Lockheed Starfighter and high-definition flight video. The flight is provided by Starfighters Aerospace, a privately owned company that maintains a fleet of F-104 Starfighters, and is authorized by both the FAA and NASA to offer civilian suborbital space flight training. The company’s Starfighters take off and land on the very same runway used by the space shuttle.

“My life can now be separated into two distinct parts, the part before I flew an F-104 and the part after. I can’t thank the Starfighter team enough for making this possible,” said Witt. “To say that it was merely ‘incredible’ does it a great disservice.”

Mrs. Witt was equally enthusiastic after her Starfighter flight. “Wow. There are no words to describe this ride.”

Each completed a flight profile carefully designed to prepare future space tourists for the physical challenges of a suborbital space flight. A high-speed vertical climb simulated the high-sustained g-forces of a rocket launch and was followed by a supersonic flight over the Atlantic Ocean. A parabolic maneuver exposed the couple to the sensation of weightlessness.

This video captured the flight.