Spacewalk backlash

It was probably inevitable that someone would speak out against Space Adventures’ announcement Friday that it will offer spacewalks as an option for its orbital tourists. While a number of former NASA spacewalkers who advise the company have endorsed the plan, former astronaut Jerry Linenger, who performed an EVA during his stay on the Mir […]

What’s going on with the X Prize Cup?

In just under three months the X Prize Cup will take place in Las Cruces, New Mexico. However, so far there have been few confirmed details about what is going on. The X Prize Foundation had planned to unveil more details on a revamped web site last month, but as of Saturday morning the site’s […]

A visit to Bigelow Aerospace

A day after a visit to Bigelow Aerospace’s corporate headquarters to interview Robert Bigelow, myself and a number of other reporters traveled up to the company’s manufacturing facility in an industrial park in North Las Vegas (with a spectacular view of the Las Vegas skyline) for a press conference and tour. At the press conference, […]

Space Adventures offers spacewalks

Astronauts who have performed EVAs have routinely stated that their spacewalks have been the highlights of their trips to space, giving them a sense of freedom not possible by simply flying inside a spacecraft. Now, space tourists with a little extra spending money (okay, a lot of extra spending money) can share in that experience. […]

Virgin seeks travel agents

Virgin Galactic has a vehicle under development, a group of 100 Founders that have paid to be the first to fly on the vehicle, and a list of tens of thousands of people who have expressed an interest in flying at some point. So it’s a little surprising to see that Virgin has put a […]

ESA and European space tourism

The European Space Agency (ESA) is taking a small step to promote the development of a European space tourism industry through a small-scale initiative announced Thursday. The “The Survey of European Privately-funded Vehicles for Commercial Human Spaceflight” will allow European companies planning vehicles intended to serve the space tourism market to submit proposals through ESA’s […]

Meeting Bigelow

When most people arrive in Las Vegas, they make a beeline for the casinos. Me, I went in a different direction (literally and figuratively), paying a visit to the corporate headquarters of Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas. (This is a separate location from their manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas.) I spent over an hour […]

Heading off to NewSpace

I’ll be travelling to Las Vegas later today to attend the NewSpace 2006 conference run by the Space Frontier Foundation, as well as some other activities. Some space tourism-related highlights of the upcoming conference:

Thursday: Constellation Services International and Space Adventures will be providing updates about their lunar mission plans. Friday: Robert Bigelow will deliver […]

Getting hitched in space

Many readers are already familiar with the “first honeymooners in space”, George Whitesides and Loretta Hidalgo, who are among Virgin Galactic’s founders. However, a couple plans to one-up them by getting married in space, The Times of Northwest Indiana reports. Cindy Cashman and Mitch Walling are planning to tie the knot on a Rocketplane XP […]

A tale of two logos

When the news about the renaming of the Southwest Regional Spaceport as Spaceport America was first reported by the AP, […]