In Brief

Suiting Up for the AXE Apollo Space Academy (Photo)

Miriam Kramer's Flight Suit for the AXE Apollo Space Academy
SPACE.com staff writer Miriam Kramer's flight suit for the AXE Apollo Space Academy. Image uploaded Dec. 4, 2013. (Image credit: Miriam Kramer/SPACE.com)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Things are about to get extreme. I flew down here to Florida Wednesday (Dec. 4) to cover the AXE Apollo Space Academy, a space camp designed to give away 23 tickets to space. The 109 recruits from more than 60 different countries hoping to win one of those coveted tickets came to Florida earlier in the week to train like astronauts, and I'm about to join them.

The astronaut hopefuls with the Axe Apollo Space Academy are being run through the ringer in a g-force simulator, air combat training in real fighter jets and Zero-Gravity parabolic flights that allow them to feel the effects of weightlessness. The people at AXE have outfitted all of the recruits and media participants with flight suits that act as our uniforms for each training mission.

Tonight, 23 lucky individuals will be awarded their tickets to fly to space with Space Expedition Corporation — a company that sells seats aboard XCOR Aerospace's Lynx spacecraft. A ticket on the Lynx usually costs $95,000 and the space plane could start flying customers in 2015. [See photos of XCOR's private Lynx space plane]

Miriam Kramer is visiting Florida with the AXE Apollo Space Academy team on a trip partially paid for by AXE.

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Miriam Kramer
Staff Writer

Miriam Kramer joined Space.com as a Staff Writer in December 2012. Since then, she has floated in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight, felt the pull of 4-Gs in a trainer aircraft and watched rockets soar into space from Florida and Virginia. She also served as Space.com's lead space entertainment reporter, and enjoys all aspects of space news, astronomy and commercial spaceflight.  Miriam has also presented space stories during live interviews with Fox News and other TV and radio outlets. She originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee where she and her family would take trips to dark spots on the outskirts of town to watch meteor showers every year. She loves to travel and one day hopes to see the northern lights in person. Miriam is currently a space reporter with Axios, writing the Axios Space newsletter. You can follow Miriam on Twitter.