Gingrich wants to go

In an interview in this week’s issue of The Space Review, former House Speaker (and potential 2008 presidential candidate talks about a variety of space issues, including space tourism. It sounds like he’d be willing to buy a suborbital ticket, although it’s not clear how much he’d be willing to pay:

TSR: Beyond participating in the VSE, what do you think of the current attempts to establish private space ventures? Do you worry that if the first suborbital flight carrying paying passengers ends tragically, the private push into space could be stopped dead in its tracks, even if the technology is in fact ready for such commercial use? Would you take such a flight?

Gingrich: I would gladly take a suborbital flight. We should seek to establish standards comparable to hang gliding or mountain climbing and allow adults to take recognized risks.

In the same interview, he advocates tax credits “for developing commercial flights into near space for space tourism”. Tax credits for space transportation in general has been proposed in recent years, but according to Rep. Ken Calvert, who has introduced such legislation in the past, tax credits in general are tough to sell to members of the Ways and Means Committee.

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