A Bahrain spaceport?

It looks like this week is spaceport week for the personal spaceflight industry. A front-page article in the Bahrain Tribune on Thursday claimed that Virgin Galactic was planning to establish a spaceport in Bahrain for suborbital space tourism. (The article is no longer available on the newspaper’s web site, and its JavaScript-based system makes permalinks […]

Joint hearing on NM spaceport tax

The three counties that are proposing gross receipts taxes to help raise money for the construction of Spaceport America are considering a joint hearing to discuss the proposed tax, the Alamogordo Daily News reported Thursday. The purpose of the joint hearing of the county commissions, according to Doña Ana Commissioner Bill McCamley, is to demonstrate […]

Woomera delay

The Adelaide, Australia newspaper The Advertiser reports that Rocketplane Kistler has delayed plans to start work on spaceport facilities in Woomera. “Design changes” are blamed for the delay, although it’s not clear from the brief article whether the changes are in the design of the spaceport or in the K-1 vehicle that will fly from […]

Ohio’s offer to PlanetSpace

According to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the Columbus Dispatch, the state of Ohio has made a preliminary incentive offer to PlanetSpace to lure the venture to establish operations in the state. (See previous coverage of Ohio’s plans to get PlanetSpace to establish a landing site and/or manufacturing facility near Columbus.) Details about the […]

The seasick astronaut

Today’s Toronto Star has an article about Terry Wong, a member of the astronaut corps of Canadian Arrow/PlanetSpace first announced back in 2003. Wong, a Canadian Forces pilot, used to suffer something that would seem to be a disadvantage to a pilot or astronaut: airsickness (including an incident on his first solo airplane flight that […]

The first Spanish space tourist wants to take wishes into space

The AP reports that Xavier Gabriel, owner of a popular lottery office in Spain, wants to be the first Spanish space tourist and has signed up for a flight on Virgin Galactic. As part of a charity he sponsors, he has collected wishes from people across the country; he plans to make the “most interesting […]

Ansari makes the top ten

Anousheh Ansari came in at number 9 in the Dallas Morning News’s list of top ten Texans of the year. Ansari cracked the list because of her Soyuz flight this fall, and for what she did during and after the flight: “…what makes Mrs. Ansari’s journey all the more amazing is how generously she shared […]

Bolden’s a “big fan” of space tourism

Metro, the free British daily, had a brief interview with former astronaut Charles Bolden last week. Among the questions asked of Bolden was whether he was “for or against” space tourism. His response:

I’m a big fan. Every time we can send a human into Earth’s orbit, that’s one more person that becomes aware of […]

Aldrin, NUMB3RS, and Sharespace

Tonight’s episode of the CBS TV series “NUMB3RS” will feature a guest appearance by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, playing himself (of course), according to a press release issued by Aldrin’s ShareSpace Foundation, a personal spaceflight advocacy organization. That release, as well as companion release, indicates that Aldrin’s appearance is timed with the relaunch of […]

Space tourism on CNBC?

I got a call over the lunch hour from someone who said that CNBC, the financial news cable network, was providing some coverage today about space tourism. It wasn’t clear whether it was an isolated segment or a recurring feature today; apparently one segment was about Benson Space Company (which would make sense given the […]