In an article in this week’s issue of The Space Review, I write about the Teachers in Space program being kicked off by the Space Frontier Foundation. The project seeks to provide teachers with the experience of traveling in space by giving them rides on suborbital vehicles. While not strictly space tourism, a project like this, if it does indeed get going, could provide suborbital space tourism operators with another stream of customers and revenue: while three companies have initially donated one ticket each, the project eventually plans to purchase flights, either through donations or government-supported programs. And teachers who have a good experience on those flights might not only inspire students to study math and science (as the program hopes), they might also help sell the flight experience to other paying customers.
“Scholarships” has interesting tax implications. If astronaut training including a training flight is a “scholarship”, that’s 50% more prize money or 1/3 less cost in fulfillment spaceflight prizes.