Dan DeLong / P-I

Tom Gonser, co-founder of ZG Aerospace, shows one of the company's test vehicles, an amateur class high-powered rocket, at his Bellevue home.

Would you pay $50 to have your business card launched into space, then returned to your waiting hands? Thanks to Seattle's ZG Aerospace, you can -- and many people have.

"You'd be surprised -- I was surprised -- at how many people take this seriously," ZG co-founder Tom Gonser told P-I business reporter Dan Richman. So far, 200 people have paid to have business cards and other small, light possessions -- photos, letters, etc. -- sent aloft on the maiden voyage of the 19.5-foot-tall, 775 pound ZGS-1 rocket.

Here's more detail on how it works, from Dan's story:

During the rocket's 15-minute flight, it will reach speeds of 4,000 miles per hour, taking 90 seconds to lift its payload capsule -- for four minutes -- into "space," at between 62 and 70 miles above the Earth's surface.

That's not very high. Most manned spaceflights, including all space shuttle and space station missions, take place at between 124 and 726 miles above the Earth. Even that is known as low Earth orbit.

But "space" is officially defined as anything higher than 62 miles. And the capsule will be briefly weightless -- a quality many people associate with true "outer space," though it can occur at lower altitudes too.

Then the rocket body and capsule will separately re-enter the atmosphere and parachute to a landing about 50 miles away from the launch site, on the White Sands Missile Range. Once the capsule cools, its contents will be mailed back to customers.