Couple Plans to Get Married in Space

Statesman.com reports that Cindy Cashman and Mitch Walling of Texas, will travel to Oklahoma in a couple of years, board a craft operated by Rocketplane Inc., and become the first couple to be married in space. It will be an expensive trip, but the couple have already begun paying for it.

The Statesman notes that Cashman, a speaker, author and entrepreneur, thinks, as they liked to say back in the '90s, "outside the box" and looks beyond what's immediately available. She conceived the idea for a wedding in space while meditating in 2005. She needed a way to get there and she needed a boyfriend.

She found the boyfriend through Match.com, an Internet dating site. After 33 dates, she knew Walling was the one. Walling, a pilot for American Eagle airlines, asked Cashman to marry him as the two were riding a motorcycle. A couple of weeks later, she broke the news to him that she wanted to get married in space. He gave her a look that said, "Yeah, right."

After doing some research, they settled on Rocketplane, which was incorporated in 2001. The company plans to begin test flights in 2008 or 2009. After 25 such flights, the company wants to begin taking tourists into space. The cost is $250.000 per person. Cashman and Walling have already made a deposit and are looking to be on the second or third flight, sometime in 2009.

According to the Statesman the craft will take off on the wedding day and climb to a distance of more than 300,000 feet. At that point, the couple will be weightless. Cashman and Walling will both be dressed in Nomex suits. Walling's suit will have 9 pockets ("for barf bags" he says), and Cashman will have a worldwide contest to design her ouitfit. The vows will be timed to last about 30 seconds. There will be an officiant on hand and a videographer to record the event (for a possible big financial deal). After the vows, the couple will have approximately four minutes of weightlessness to look out the window. Then back to earth.