Reuters has an article today on the struggles Russian cosmonauts encounter once they return to Earth after long-duration missions to the ISS. The article includes the opinions of one cosmonaut, Gennady Padalka, has about flying tourists on missions to the ISS: “On the one hand, when a guy comes along with a big sack of […]
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I ran across this week this article about space tourism from a publication called The Student Operated Press. Pretty harmless stuff, until you read the roster of space tourists who have flown to the ISS: Denis Titio, Mark Shattlvort, George Olsen, Anyshe Ansary, and, most recently, Charles Simony. Yeah, that’s right. One possible reason for […] Australian newspapers reported over the weekend that Brisbane woman Glenys Ambe is the first person to book a flight on Virgin Galactic. First person? That’s going to be a bit of a surprise to the 100 or so Founders, plus anyone else who reached a deal with Virgin prior to Ms. Ambe; perhaps she’s the […] The Seattle Times has the first interview with Charles Simonyi since his return to Earth on Saturday. He calls the trip “absolutely worthwhile”, full of “rich, fascinating stuff”, although he didn’t call it a particularly spiritual event. He said the future of commercial spaceflight depends on making the experience less complex: “We also have to […] The fifth commercial visitor to the ISS, Charles Simonyi, is safely back on Earth, landing in Kazakhstan a few hours shy of two weeks after his launch from Baikonur. “It’s good to be back, to be back on Earth,” he said after landing, according to SPACE.com. Earlier, when he was leaving the ISS with NASA […] Today’s Wall Street Journal features a discussion on space tourism safety issues between Patti Grace Smith, the associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA; and Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation. (This is one of WSJ.com’s free features today, so no subscription should be required to read it.) It should be […] SPACE.com reports that the stepdaughter of Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson was among those injured at Virginia Tech Monday in the shootings that killed more than 30 people. Kristina Heeger is in stable condition and doing well, a company spokesman said. A few minor items of note in the news the last few days: The Washington Post profiles Space Adventures and its role in shaping the space tourism industry. The article includes a quote from current ISS tourist Charles Simonyi, who contacted the reporter “in an e-mail from space”. Not a description you see in any […] Charles Simonyi has been on the ISS for nearly three days now, and in space for nearly five, but, surprisingly, he has been overshadowed in many of the media reports about the flight. The Daily Telegraph notes that, in the days leading up to the launch, he was overshadowed by his friend, Martha Stewart, who […] |
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Simonyi backlash
When Dennis Tito flew six years ago, the question was whether or not a private fare-paying citizen could visit the International Space Station. By last year that controversy had disappeared and had been replaced by more mundane ones: was Anousheh Ansari the first female space tourist or not? So far, Charles Simonyi’s flight to the […]