Paul Allen, future space tourist?

Compared to the good ol’ days (2001), a space tourist flying to the ISS these days is a little, well, ho-hum. Back in 2001 there was all the drama associated with whether NASA would allow Dennis Tito to fly to the station on a Soyuz, and if so, what sort of reception he would get […]

Bad news for would-be first Indian space tourists

India’s Express News Service reported last week that Santhosh George Kulangara is under investigation by India’s Income Tax Department for possible tax evasion. Kulangara, managing director of Labour India Group Publications, is also frequently identified as India’s first space tourist since he is one of Virgin Galactic’s first 100 customers, aka “Founders”. He was not […]

Remembering Tom Rogers

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 […]

Notes from my Simonyi interview

On Wednesday I had a long telephone interview with Charles Simonyi, scheduled to make a return trip to the International Space Station late next month. (The interview got delayed a couple hours because his training that day ran long.) I plan to have a more complete account of the interview in Monday’s issue of The […]

What would you ask Charles Simonyi?

On Wednesday I’m going to be interviewing Charles Simonyi, who will be making a return trip to the ISS late next month as a private astronaut (aka space tourist). I’ve got plenty of questions that I can ask him, but I would like to see what questions you’d like to ask him if you had […]

Controversy for new space tourism training program

Last month Space Florida and the Andrews Institute announced the creation of a new training program for potential space tourists. Project Odyssey, based at Andrews’ facilities near Pensacola as well as nearby military facilities, would provide medical screening and training for prospective spaceflight participants.

Now, the Orlando Sentinel reports Saturday, the creation of the state-supported […]

Virgin update and other notes

Rob Coppinger of Flightglobal.com covered a speech this morning by Will Whitehorn of Virgin Galactic at a UK space conference. Whitehorn said that the first flight of WhiteKnightTwo will be “soon” (but we’ve heard that before) and that SpaceShipTwo is “almost finished”. Virgin Galactic is now putting its second group of 100 customers through […]

Garriott says game over; is a space career next?

Richard Garriott, the space tourist who flew to the International Space Station last month, is leaving computer game company NCSoft to pursue new ventures that were at least inspired by his recent trip to space. “Many of you probably wonder what my plans are, now that I have achieved the lifelong dream of going to […]

Video: John Carmack interview

As the 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge was winding down, I was able to sit down and talk with John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace for several minutes. Below is the video from that interview, where Carmack discusses what happened with Pixel on Saturday, his plans for the future (which begin with tracking down and […]

Video: Ken Davidian at ISPCS

This weekend was a milestone not just for Armadillo Aerospace and the Lunar Lander Challenge but for one of the people behind the scenes, Ken Davidian. The former manager of NASA’s Centennial Challenges prize program, Ken is leaving his position leading commercial policy development in NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate for a similar position within […]