Update on Russia and Space Adventures

To update my earlier post, I spoke briefly yesterday with Eric Anderson of Space Adventures to try and clarify any apparent contradictions between the company’s announcements and statements by the Russian space agency Roskosmos. Anderson said that Perminov’s statement that he had “no information about such plans” was reference to reports about Sergey Brin flying […]

Russian miscommunication on Space Adventures’ plans

An article in Saturday’s edition of Florida Today reports that NASA “was among the last to know” about Space Adventures’ plans for a dedicated Soyuz flight to the ISS in late 2011. Of course, NASA didn’t need to be consulted prior to the announcement, so that’s not too surprising, although NASA and the other international […]

Space Adventures press conference: brief summary

Here are some of the key items from this morning’s press conference held by Space Adventures about their future plans (see their press release for some additional details):

The first major announcement was that the company has reached an agreement with Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, for a dedicated Soyuz flight to the ISS in […]

Sergey Brin, space tourist?

An intriguing short item in today’s San Jose Mercury News about the Space Adventures press conference later today:

Space tourists are getting their own ride. Space Adventures, a Virginia company that arranges passage for wealthy explorers to ride on Russian Soyuz rockets to the International Space Station, plans to buy a Soyuz flight all […]

A changing of the guard at Scaled

In an announcement whose timing was a bit surprising but also not entirely unexpected, Scaled Composites revealed that Burt Rutan would be stepping down as president and would be replaced by Doug Shane, who had been vice president of Scaled and also served as a test pilot for the company. Rutan will remain with the […]

2008 Lunar Lander Challenge plans announced

The X Prize Foundation announced late Friday afternoon that the 2008 Lunar Lander Challenge (LLC) will be held at Holloman AFB in New Mexico on October 24-25. Unlike the past two years, the LLC appears to be taking place as a standalone event and not part of an X Prize Cup. The press release notes […]

Space Adventures announcement next week

Space Adventures sent out a media advisory yesterday announcing a press conference planned for Wednesday, June 11, in New York. The press conference will reveal the identity of a “notable future orbital client” as well as “significant announcements regarding new orbital spaceflight planning”, including a “vision for the next decade”. Richard Garriott, currently in training […]