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The wealthy -- even those who weren't friends with Bernie Madoff -- have taken big hits already in the economic downturn. But to paraphrase Scott Fitzgerald, the very wealthy are different from you and I, and they're still psyched up about spending many millions of dollars to see what's outside the Earth's atmosphere.

Commercial space flight company Space Adventures says that business is still strong despite the downturn, with mega-millionaires and billionaires still ponying up tens of millions of dollars to go into orbit.

The company has taken in about $175 million by selling seats on Russian rockets bound for the International Space Station, and a few new customers have put in deposits for future missions, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Customers pay anywhere between $35 and $45 million for the voyage.

Question Raised: If you had that kind of cash lying around, would you spend it on a space cruise?