Brian Binnie's speech on space ourism riding SpaceShipOne

"Binnie described what people might feel when SS2 is released from its aircraft. “There’s separation, and a little lightening of the seat, and you’re free,” he said. “And you’re kind of thinking to yourself, ‘I can handle that.’ It’s kind of quiet since you’re separated from the jet engines, but just when you start to feel your oats you see a yellow light come on in the front cabin; that means the rocket motor has been armed. Then another light comes on, that means the firing sequence has commenced, and perhaps the large numeral ‘5’. That’s the number of seconds before the rest of your life is changed pretty much forever.”

“It goes to ‘4’, and you really start to feel the adrenaline start to kick in,” he continued. “It goes to ‘3’, and you look at your neighbor, and sort of see them have similar angst. It goes to ‘2’, and maybe you say a quick prayer, even if you don’t pray. And then ‘1’.”

“And when the rocket motor lights off, it is though a tsunami sweeps through that cabin,” he said. “Your ‘fun meter’ goes from hard right to left, from fun to fear, you go from the top to the bottom of Maslow’s charts [of hierarchy of needs], and away you go.”

The experience is so jarring, he continued, “you have nothing in your DNA to tell you whether this is good or bad. For the first three or four seconds, you’re running on fear, and then you realize you’re still alive, so the faith part kicks in that says, ‘Well, this is sorta like how they told me this would be. I’m still breathing and thinking, so we must be doing alright.’”

I'll go. But to avoid serious embarrasment, I'll prepare as if I were going to have a colonoscopy first.