Alan Boyle helps the space tourism industry celebrate its fourth “birthday” with a piece over at MSNBC. Or, more accurately, he marks the anniversary of Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites ushering in the “age of privately developed spaceflight” with the first suborbital flight of SpaceShipOne.
Boyle reviews the progress since that date, noting the only predictable thing is the industry’s unpredictability. Virgin Galactic’s first suborbital tourist flight is still about two years away, which is more or less where it was back in June 2004.
For his part, Rutan professes to have been so caught up building SpaceShipTwo that he plum forgot about the whole anniversary thing until Boyle reminded him. This folksy “ahh shucks” response may be designed to minimize the four years that have passed since that historic flight. Or things are so far behind schedule that he genuinely did forget.
Whatever the case, the legendary designer is not as active as he once was in Scaled Composites, which is now fully owned by defense colossus Northrop Grumman. Rutan, who is still recovering from open heart surgery in February, stepped down as the company’s president earlier this month. Sources who have seen him give speeches in recent months report that he has a tendency to meander off topic into tangents, a sign of how much the surgery has affected him.
Meanwhile, Space.com’s Tariq Malik looks at a couple of upcoming space tourism events: Virgin Galactic’s scheduled July 28 rollout of its WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, which will haul SpaceShipTwo aloft; and Space Adventures’ October launch of publicity shy Richard Garriott, who will be the latest billionaire to use the taxpayer-funded International Space Station as an orbiting hotel.
Space Adventures, a company that has made millions selling orbital joyrides to people worth billions, is trying to ensure that its wealthy clients get a bit more respect.
The Virginia company that pioneered space tourism is rebranding its elite clientele as “space explorers,” pointing to the experiments that they conduct while vacationing aboard the International Space Station. In the process, the company is trying to leave its label as a “space tourism” outfit behind.
“Space tourism isn’t the right word for what we do,” Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson told Popular Mechanics. “It’s something more. What we’re doing is opening a new frontier. … We’re no longer exclusively a space tourism company, we’re a space mission company.”
Space Adventures kicked off its rebranding effort in earnest last week with the announcement that it would begin charting Soyuz flights to ISS beginning in 2011. The company currently flies tourists as the third passenger on regularly scheduled, government financed missions to the orbital outpost. The charter flights would be commercially funded, carrying a commander and two paying customers.
Google Founder Sergey Brin will likely be aboard the inaugural 2011 flight. He invested $5 million in Space Adventures, money that serves as a downpayment on a flight and makes him the charter member of the brand new Orbital Mission Explorer’s Circle. This exclusive club will have only seven members.
The rebranding effort has been ongoing for some time. Space Adventures’ client Anousheh Ansari, who flew to the space station, gave an interview to Space Future back in April in which she bristled at the label of “space tourist.” Ansari believes the six months of training made her more than just a tourist, even though she is not a professional astronaut.
Google Co-Founder Brin to Fly; Invests $5 Million to Join Exclusive Club of One
Space Adventures announced a deal with the Russian Space Agency on Wednesday to charter one Soyuz flight annually to the International Space Station beginning in 2011.
The flights will include one Russian cosmonaut and two paying tourists. Previously, space tourists have occupied the third seat on flights that swapped out older Soyuz vehicles attached to the station. The privately-funded mission will be conducted outside of the normal rotation of spacecraft and crews to and from the orbiting outpost, officials said.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin may occupy one of the two tourist seats on the 2011 flight. He has invested $5 million in Space Adventures, money that serves as a down payment on a space fight. The flight will apparently cost in excess of $35 million.
Brin is now the founding (and, to date, only) member of the new Orbital Mission Explorers Circle, which represent an effort “to build a definitive consortium of future private space explorers who share a lifetime goal of orbital spaceflight or the investment therein,” Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson said. The circle will eventually include six members.
Continue reading ‘In ‘Paradigm’ Shift, Space Adventures Sells Two Tickets on Same Soyuz Flight’
Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson was in Dubai this week, talking up his company’s $265 million spaceport in Ras Al Khaimah and its planned human circumlunar tourism flights, now set for launch in 2012.
Business 24-7 indicates that the $100 million flight will involve a 10-day stay aboard the International Space Station. The mission will require two separate rocket launches, one for the Soyuz and a second for a booster to send the spacecraft off to the moon.
The Soyuz will not orbit the moon but rather fly around it at an altitude of 160 kilometers (100 miles). The Soviets sent several robotic Soyuz-derived Zond missions on similar flights 40 years ago, but they have not flown any similar missions since then.
“We are in serious discussions with some clients from around the world, including Americans, Europeans and hopefully some Emiratis in the future,” Anderson said.
European and Russian space companies are studying designs for a new crew vehicle for possible launch aboard an Ariane 5, Rob Coppinger reports over on his Hyperbola blog.
The study involves a group of European companies headed by Thales Alenia Space and EADS Astrium that is working with Russia’s Energia and S. P. Korolev. A number of designs are being considered, including one similar to NASA’s Apollo and Orion capsules.
One particularly intriguing aspect is that engineers studied building a lunar version of the Russian Soyuz crew transport. However, they rejected the idea because problems arose with the vehicle’s thermal protection system and other changes required to fly to the moon.
Virginia-based Space Adventures is planning to use a Soyuz variant to fly tourists around the moon. Coppinger’s report raises some interesting questions about just how much modification the vehicle will require and what that might cost.
Space Adventures has consolidated its position in the space tourism market by acquiring a 100 percent stake in Zero-G, a company that provides micro-gravity aircraft flights. No price was disclosed.
“Bringing the companies together allows us to provide a range of exclusive commercial spaceflight services from parabolic flights to orbital missions,” said Zero-G CEO Peter Diamandis.
Diamandis, who also co-founded Space Adventures, remains as Zero-G’s chief executive and becomes a managing director of Space Adventures. Former NASA astronaut Byron Lichtenberg will stay as Zero-G’s chief technology officer.
Space Adventures was already a major investor in Zero-G. The Vienna, Virginia-based company provides tourism flights to the International Space Station and is planning similar missions around the moon. Zero-G is based in Florida and Las Vegas.
Space.com has more information. You can also read Space Adventures‘ press release.
Forbes has an interesting interview with Richard Garriott, the billionaire software developer who will become the next space tourist to fly to the International Space Station in October.
Garriott, whose father Owen fly in space aboard Skyab and the space shuttle, says that his ambition goes a lot further than just taking an orbital joyride. He wants to contribute to opening up space for everyone.
“I grew up listening to criticisms of space exploration. My mission is to show that this is a useful, profitable activity,” said Gariott, who will conduct experiments during his 10-14 day flight.
Twenty Alabama high school juniors have helped to prepare crystal growth experiments that American space tourist Richard Garriott will take to the International Space Station in October.
The Birmingham News has story about the students’ involvement in the program, which was spearheaded by University of Alabama at Huntsville associate professor Joe Ng.
Crystals grow at different rates in micro-gravity than they do in normal gravity. The students will compare the results of the crystal experiments in space with a control group on Earth.
To learn more about the mission, you can also visit Garriott’s web site at www.richardinspace.com.
Todayonline.com reports that Virgin Galactic may be looking at Singapore as a possible base for its suborbital tourism business within the next five years.
This move could pose a challenge for Space Adventures, which announced plans to build a spaceport in Singapore back two years ago. However, the Virginia-based company has only raised about half the funding for the facility, according to CEO Eric Anderson. He said the company hopes to raise the remainder of the funding by year’s end.
Air & Space Magazine’s Irene Klotz talks with space tourist Richard Garriott, a computer game developer scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in October. A second generation space traveler, his father Owen flew aboard Skylab and the Space Shuttle.
“While computer games have been my vocation, my personal and private investing and side hobby has been in exploration and adventure travel, with a focus on getting civilians into space. Space Adventures, which made history by sending the first civilian into space, is a company that I was the earliest investor in, and still the largest investor, and I’m thrilled that now we’re finally able to allow me to take that journey.”
Sam Dinkin also has a new interview with Garriott over at The Space Review. Garriott talks about the challenges of learning Russian, the similarities between spaceflight and the video games he designs, and explains the experiments he will be conducting on ISS.