India’s first space tourist Santhosh George Kulangara is launch-ready

KOTTAYAM: Only a journey to the outer space has been eluding Santhosh George Kulangara so far. That too will be a reality soon for the 49-year-old who has travelled to 130 countries and has documented his experiences for Malayalis across the world.
He is set to become India’s first space tourist, having booked his seat back in 2007 in one of the proposed paid commercial space flights to be launched by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. The globetrotter is really pumped up about his journey following the space trips made by Branson earlier this month and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday.
“Branson’s trip indicates that the stage is set for the launch of commercial flights for tourists like me,” says Santhosh who figures that space is the next big thing for humans.
“People don’t know whether earth will be a safe place to reside in another 100 years. The climatic changes and pandemics are just indications of things to come. So, colonization will start in other planets soon,” he says, adding that companies will be racing against each other in space exploration, and that he is hoping to hop on a space flight by the year-end or next year-beginning.

Santhosh had booked his seat for $2.5 lakh at a time when people knew little about the project. “Commercial space flights were just a distant hope at that time. But I have been waiting since then,” he says.
Santhosh has visited Virgin Galactic’s spaceports at Mojave desert in the US and in New Mexico for flight training: Zero gravity, G-tolerance, etc. The expenses for the trainings were additional.
Santhosh has been receiving updates about the project on a weekly basis. When asked whether he will catch the first commercial flight, he said he is not sure about it.
“Only four people can travel in one flight. Each batch will be decided based on various criteria. As of now, I know that I will be in one of the early flights to the space and the first Indian to do so,” he said.
Santhosh had begun his solo journeys across the globe with a video camera in 1997. The informative documentaries he made about his foreign trips have made him immensely popular and a familiar TV face.
He plans to carry a camera along with him to space as well. “I never travel without a camera. More than me seeing things, I want viewers to see, learn and experience from my trips,” he says.
He said he will beam across his preparations for the voyage for viewers to see. “None of the Indians or Keralites have gone through such an experience. Showing it to them is what thrills me,” he says.
“Though there are around six cameras inside the spacecraft I will have a video camera with me to capture the moments which the inbuilt cameras may miss. I had sought permission for it at the time of booking my ticket. For them it was interesting as I was becoming a space tourist representing around 130 crores of people. They knew my camera will be opening the outer space before a huge population,” he says.
Santhosh owns a publishing house named Labour India and an exploration channel Safari TV based out of his native town Marangattupally in Kottayam.