Flight International reports that Prodea Systems, the company founded by the Ansari family, has yet to make a decision on investing in the development of the Explorer suborbital vehicle proposed by Russia’s Myasishchev Design Bureau. The article notes that “Anousheh Ansari says the company is only funding a feasibility study that will continue for several months.” What isn’t clear from this report is if this schedule for such a study was planned all along or represents something of a delay in Explorer’s development. Back in February Space Adventures, which will market the Explorer flights, said that this would be the “first suborbital spaceflight tourism vehicles, but if a decision to proceed with funding and development doesn’t come until early next year, they’ll be hard-pressed to beat Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Rocketplane’s XP unless they have a very fast development schedule.
I hope Prodea is also looking into domestic partnerships, such as a teaming with Benson Space. They could likely have a stronger management role were such a partnership to occur.
The biggest market (at first) will surely be the the US market. It’s a fact that the commercial space ecosystem is most vibrant in the states. And partnering with an international firm would probably face regulatory challenges in addition to the technology development challenges in developing the totally new Explorer. Benson Space on the other hand is a domestic company, and is proposing a vehicle that has already flown.