Matthew will be waiting until 2008 to take his flight to space. He will be part of one of the first commercial missions into space.
Matthew's flight is called a suborbital flight. A suborbital flight is a mission that flies out of the atmosphere but does not orbit the Earth. During the flight Matthew will be able to look down at the curvature of the earth as astronauts do when they are in orbit. The flight will take him 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth and he will experience five minutes of continuous weightlessness. Prior to his flight, Matthew will experience four days of intensive space training. |
