Tag Archive for 'space tourism'

The Times Profiles Virgin Galactic’s Will Whitehorn

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Doug
on July 20, 2008
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Virgin Galactic’s Will Whitehorn combines industrial research with luxury goods
Martin Waller
The Times of London

“Mr. Whitehorn, who joined Virgin in 1987 as public relations man and then increasingly took on a managerial role, became president of Virgin Galactic in 2004.

The first task was to demonstrate there was a big enough market to justify putting the funds into what was, literally, a blue-sky venture. “We went out and decided to try to sell tickets,” he says. “We thought the easiest place to go first was people who wanted to go into space.”

The second phone call came, improbably, from Ms. [Victoria] Principal, who has since her days on the Dallas set built a large cosmetics business. Within months they had $10 million in deposits from 50 people.”

Stewardess Eats Kitt Katt Bar, Wins Trip to Space

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Doug
on July 17, 2008
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Air hostess picks up chocolate bar, wins space trip
Reuters

“A French air hostess will become one of Europe’s pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere…

“[Mathilde Epron] will receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma City in the United States before boarding the Rocketplane XP aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.”

When precisely that will be is unclear; Rocketplane XP has yet to even conduct a test flight.

Wanna Bet There Will Be Lunar Casinos in 30 Years? Now You Can

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Doug
on July 11, 2008
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ONLINE CASINO REPORTS PRESS RELEASE
10 July 2008

Online Casino Reports lays a bet on the future of casino gambling, and donates to charity on the way. The online gambling portal has taken odds betting to a new realm entirely by placing a predictive wager on futuristic odds betting site, Long Bets, stating that there will be a casino on the moon by 2040.

The prediction states that space tourism will be with us sooner than we think. And as gambling is gradually becoming more widespread and socially acceptable, it is not out of the question to expect a casino to arrive on the moon within the next thirty years.

Online Casino Reports Chief Editor Daniel O comments: “It’s our job to keep our users up to speed with the latest developments in online gambling. This includes tracking the best promotions on the web, as well as reporting the news in real-time. So we were keen to test out this new futuristic betting site. If the way gambling has conquered the web is anything to go by, we can assume that nowhere is out of reach, even space!”

This new phenomenon in odds betting has a charitable twist as visitors to the Long Bets site can comment on the space casino prediction and turn it into a competitive bet. All proceeds are directed towards the charity of the bettor’s choice. Online Casino Report’s lunar gambling prediction can be viewed at www.longbets.org/377.

Virgin Galactic Signs Social Networking Deal

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Doug
on July 6, 2008
in News and space tourism
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Virgin Galactic has become the latest company to embrace social networking, signing a deal with introNetworks. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company will build a system to connect customers who have signed up suborbital flights aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo vehicle.

“Since our inception five years ago, we’ve created smart social networks for companies of varying sizes and personalities, but always within the confines of our planet,” introNetworks CEO Mark Sylvester said in a press release. “By working with the visionaries at Virgin Galactic we have the opportunity to use our technology and creativity to help connect individuals who share a passion to boldly go where only a handful of individuals have gone before.”

The system is set to be launched later this month, corresponding with the July 28 roll out of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft in Mojave, Calif.

“As a company that has always looked beyond what’s attainable today, we look for partners that share our vision and introNetworks definitely fits that mold,” said David Clark, Virgin Galactic’s Astronaut Relations guru. “We’re looking forward to working with introNetworks to provide our future astronauts with a private and secure network around which they can build a very special community.”

Happy Birthday, Suborbital Tourism: Now, Will Ya Go Fly Some Actual Tourists Already?

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Doug
on June 28, 2008
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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.

Parabolas: In Space, No One Can Hear You Beg; the Russians are Going (and so is Garriott)

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Doug
on June 28, 2008
in News, space tourism and tourism
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Weaver Makes Bid for Space Travel
PR-Insider.com

Actress Sigourney Weaver is begging Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson to let her be next celebrity to venture into space.

Weaver says, “I’d love to go (to space). Sure, if I had the opportunity. I read somewhere that I was going… I apparently was on the passenger list. I was apparently on the invitation (from Branson).”

Six Russians to Take First Virgin Galactic Space Ride in 2010
RIA Novosti

Six Russians are to be the initial clients of the world’s first space travel agency, Virgin Galactic, which is to launch suborbital passenger flights in 2010.

Igor Kutsenko, who runs an advertising firm in Moscow, told a Virgin Galactic news conference in the Russian capital that he and his business partner, Sergei Tyaglov, had bought tickets 18 months ago, and that he had also reserved tickets for his parents, both in their fifties.

Options for Space Tourists
Andrei Kislyakov
RIA Novosti

What we have here is a typically Russian paradox: although this country was the first to try out space tourism, it has failed to develop it further, letting other countries reap the fruits of this endeavor.

Furthermore, the ways in which Roskosmos (Russian Federal Space Agency) has been trying to branch out into tourism has no benefits for our national space program.

Way Later than 2001, Space Odysseys are Under Way
Helen Anders
American Statesman

“I grew up assuming all of us would go into space,” [Richard] Garriott says. Then he found out he had poor eyesight. Too bad, the family doctor told the youngster; you can’t be an astronaut.

“That’s when I realized,” Garriott says, “if I’m going it will have to be outside NASA.”

XCor Begins Building Airframe, Continues Rocket Tests

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Doug
on June 19, 2008
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XCOR Begins Lynx Build
Rob Coppinger
Hyperbola Blog

Coppinger has photos of XCOR’s Lynx high-altitude tourism vehicle, now being assembled at the company’s facility in Mojave, Calif.

XCOR Rocket Engine to Continue Flight Testing
Rob Coppinger
Flight Global

XCOR Aerospace is by July to restart flight testing its XR-4K14 1,500lb-thrust (6.67kN) liquid oxygen/kerosene engine and the aircraft it propels, the Rocket Racing League’s X-Racer…The XR-4K14 is the predecessor to Xcor’s single-stage-to-suborbit Lynx vehicle’s 5K18 engine and it will have changes made to its piston driven pump’s drive gas consumption before flight testing resumes.

Support a Presidential Candidate, Help Fund Space Joyrides for Millionaires

Published
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Doug
on June 19, 2008
in News
. Closed

Richardson’s presidential campaign donated to help get spaceport tax passed
Jose L. Medina
Las Cruces Sun-News

Gov. Bill Richardson’s unsuccessful presidential campaign was the largest contributor to a political action committee that pushed for passage of a spaceport tax referendum in Sierra County last April…The Richardson for President campaign gave $10,000 to People for Aerospace of Sierra County on April 8, two weeks before the April 22 vote in which Sierra residents overwhelmingly approved the tax, clearing the way for a spaceport taxation district.

April Schmidlapp, who worked to defeat Sierra’s tax, said she feels the vote was bought. She said a loosely organized group of tax opponents at most spent “a couple thousand dollars.”

“It’s all part of a group in (Truth or Consequences) that just bullies its way through decision-making and gets what they want done,” she said.

What Spaceport doesn’t mean
Saturn Noriega
Alamogordo Daily News

Steve Landeene, executive director of the N.M. Spaceport Authority, says the port will create 2,500 jobs generating more than $1 billion in economic growth. If each job represents a new family (Mom/Dad/Child) you get 7,500 new people. Add some 3,500 more to supply that growth with services and consumables, and the total jumps to 11,000 (all estimates, of course).

I do not feel one-third of those jobs will come to Otero. Maybe not even one will, unless it’s a local who is lucky enough to land a SP job and is willing to drive over the St. Augustin Pass then 50 miles north of Las Cruces on a four-hour daily trek, rather than move nearer the SP.

Say Goodbye to Space Tourists: Only Billionaire “Explorers” Need Apply

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Doug
on June 16, 2008
in space station and space tourism
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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.

AP: Private ISS Flight Still Requires Consultations, Approvals from Partners

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Doug
on June 12, 2008
in News, space station, space tourism and tourism
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Space Adventure’s plan to fund a private Soyuz tourism flight to the International Space Station still requires consultation with and approval by the United States and other station partners, the Associated Press reports.

“NASA space station manager Kenny Todd said that consultation hasn’t taken place. He said that since NASA is a primary partner in the space station, ‘it certainly wants to have an understanding of how that’s going to happen and what all would be involved’ in the private flight.”

Top among the concerns: that Russia will not be overburdened building Soyuz spacecraft required to transport crews to the orbiting outpost. After two recent hair-raising re-entries, this is not a trivial concern.

Continue reading ‘AP: Private ISS Flight Still Requires Consultations, Approvals from Partners’