If you hear him say anything interesting post it in the comments.

One interesting thing about the book is that it is published not by a conventional publisher but by Olsen’s own company, GHO Ventures, which he set up several years ago to manage his investments. That may make it a little difficult to find in brick-and-mortar bookstores; it’s also not available on the web sites of Barnes and Noble and Borders, but is available on Amazon.com. Interestingly, the copy I ordered from Amazon stated at the back that it was printed in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 19th—three days after I ordered it. The quality of the book, though, is quite good, indistinguishable from books released by large publishers.

An issue that came up in the comments of the review was Olsen’s hopes that his flight would, in effect, pay for itself through research he would perform on the mission. He doesn’t go into great detail about this in the book, but does discuss his (ultimately unsuccessful) efforts to get an export license for an infrared camera his company, Sensors Unlimited, had developed that he wanted to take to the station. (He needed the license since he was training in Russia and launching from Kazakhstan.) He also wanted to perform some gallium arsenide crystal growth experiments using the “glovebox” on the station, but the glovebox “became unavailable”, he writes in the book. (Chris Faranetta, in the review’s comments, states that the glovebox furnace was broken and would not be repaired “due to concerns over the crew handling materials that contained arsenic”; there were also concerns about getting export approvals for the materials that Olsen wanted to fly.)

As I note in the review, Olsen is the first space tourist to write a book about his flight to space, but he won’t be the only one for long. Anousheh Ansari is working on My Dream of Stars with co-author Homer Hickham, of Rocket Boys fame. That book is being published by Palgrave Macmillan with a release date of March 2.

But is that a fair—or useful—description? Yes, he has a predilection for red clown noses and has promised to tickle fellow ISS crew members as they sleep, but calling him a clown makes it all seem a bit too silly. After all, he isn’t a clown full-time: he owns and operates a major entertainment company, Cirque du Soleil, that has made him a billionaire. The BBC, at least, calls him a “circus entrepreneur”—after calling him a “space clown” in the headline—which seems a more accurate description of him.

Also, he’s stated that he’s not going into space for clowning around or entertainment alone: he plans to, in effect, MC a global concert called the “Poetic Social Mission” to raise awareness about the needs for clean water. Just today Cirque du Soleil announced additions to the roster of participants, from actor Matthew McConaughey to singer Joss Stone. IT would seem that, in organizing this event, Laliberté isn’t clowning around.

I had heard a few weeks earlier that this name change was in the works. One reason for the change is that, as the statement notes, members companies are not exclusively focused on space tourism. Another reason, though, may have been that the term “personal spaceflight” really hasn’t gained wide acceptance in the field, or the general public. While some might cringe at “space tourism”, you’re still far more likely to hear that term as opposed to “personal spaceflight” or other alternatives. And if you have to explain what “personal spaceflight” is every time you use the term, it may be time to switch gears.

(I will add here that while that may be the case for the PSF/CSF, I have no immediate plans to change the name of this blog.)

The CSF also announced yesterday that Mark Sirangelo is the new chairman of the organization, succeeding Alex Tai of Virgin Galactic, who is stepping down after completing a three-year term. Sirangelo is currently executive vice president of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC); he had been chairman and CEO of SpaceDev prior to that company’s acquisition by SNC.

So who is Barbara Barrett? Her Wikipedia bio describes her as an “International business and aviation attorney, Businesswoman, Diplomat, [and] Rancher.” Among other accomplishments, she has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and became the first civilian woman to land an F/A-18 on an aircraft carrier (although there is some debate in the talk page associated with the Wikipedia entry about whether she actually landed the plane or was just along for the ride.) She served briefly as US ambassador to Finland last year and has been on a number of boards, including the Aerospace Corporation. She is also married to Craig Barrett, the retired CEO and chairman of Intel.

The press conference itself was an odd affair, split between Moscow, where Laliberté was, and Montreal, where Canadian Space Agency president Steve MacLean spoke. (CSA is providing advice to Laliberté, but no other overt support.) This meant that Russian, English, and French were all spoken at the press conference, with Laliberté answering questions in the latter two languages. Oddly, while the press conference provided Russian-English (and, presumably, Russian-French) translations, there were no English-French translations, especially during the Q&A. (Laliberté read his opening statement in French first, then English.) Anglophone viewers were thus shut out of the information he provided in his responses in French, and vice versa.

Laliberté did say that he had been in Star City since May 10 for medical tests, which he has passed. Prior to getting started he exchanged emails with the two previous commercial visitors to the ISS, Charles Simonyi and Richard Garriott, getting guidance on the experience and other issues, including life in Star City. As for the price of the trip, Laliberté would not disclose a figure, citing confidentiality agreements, but said it was “pretty similar” to recent trips, which have been estimated to cost $35 million.

As the Sentinel reports today, the state’s inspector general has found that Harris “likely violated” state law by helping arrange $500,000 in state grants for the project and then going to work for the Andrews Institute, the Pensacola medical center where Project Odyssey is located. During a review of 5,000 emails by the office, “it appeared the Project Odyssey consumed most of Harris’ e-mail communications and work time while he was employed with OTTED,” the inspector general’s report states, referring the Office of Trade, Tourism and Economic Development, where Harris worked prior to joining the Andrews Institute. OTTED provided half of the $500,000 for Project Odyssey, with Space Florida contributing the other half. “The emails indicate that Harris’ involvement in Project Odyssey was disproportionate to his time expended on his various other OTTED related duties.”

The inspector general’s report recommended that the case be referred to the state’s ethics commission “for further evaluation and determination of ethics law violations.” The entire project is now in jeopardy, regardless of any technical or economic merits it may have, because of this controversy. “There’s no reason to be spending state dollars to subsidize rich people who will be flying on future flights into space,” Barney Bishop, a member of the Space Coast’s Economic Development Commission, tells the Sentinel. “I would hope they’re going to cancel this contract, because it makes no sense on the face of it, and now there are questions about how it was set up in the first place.”