As you may have already heard, space tourism pioneer Tom Rogers passed away last week at the age of 85. Rogers had been in poor health and out of public view for the last few years, but for much of the 1990s and early 2000s—after a long career in public service—he was one of the leading advocates of space tourism during an era when it suffered from the so-called “snicker factor”: the snickering or open laughter the topic generated when the topic was discussed in space industry events. That snicker factor has disappeared, and Tom Rogers played a key role in helping eliminate it.
Look for more comments about Rogers and his work at NASA Watch and Transterrestrial Musings. At some point I will dig through some of my old notes from his speeches from around the turn of the decade and see what gems I can find.
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