For $6,500, you can fly in zero gravity with George Takei
Beam me up, Mr. Sulu! The legendary actor will take a weightless flight with a small group in Las Vegas this summer to celebrate Star Trek's 50th anniversary.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Longing to explore strange new worlds? To boldly go where few have gone before? Your best bet might be to raid the kids' college fund and head to Vegas on August 4. That's when "Star Trek" star George Takei, who played Lt. Hikaru Sulu in the original series, will join 20 fans for a weightless experience from Zero-G and Roddenberry Adventures.
"Star Trek" premiered September 8, 1966, so the flight is just over a month before the 50th anniversary. Each ticket is $6,500 plus tax (about £4,510, AU$8,960) and includes a flight suit, party, and photos and videos, plus a meet-and-greet with Takei himself.
"Flight participants will board G-Force One, Zero-G's specially modified Boeing 727 that uses parabolic arcs to make achieving weightlessness easier than accelerating to warp one," a release for the event promises. "At the top of each arc anything is possible, such as perfecting the moonwalk, flying effortlessly through the air or flipping like an Olympic gymnast. The flight will include 12-15 parabolas. After a brief encounter with Martian and Lunar gravities, flyers will experience true weightlessness and an exhilarating freedom from Earth's pull."
Takei has a busy summer planned, not including the zero-gravity flight. On June 13, he makes his off-Broadway debut in "White Rabbit, Red Rabbit," a theatrical experience where a new actor every night takes on a play that's sealed in an envelope and has never been seen by them before.
And on June 23, he'll join Star Trek co-star Nichelle Nichols and astronaut Buzz Aldrin at Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Complex for an Apollo 11 Anniversary Gala. "Star Trek" may no longer be airing, but Sulu has never left the helm.
(Via GeekWire)