As part of the President's pivot to fiscal responsibility, the White House unveiled a new budget last week that scraps NASA's moon program and shifts $6 billion into promoting private space flight. Instead of using NASA's space shuttles to move our astronauts back and forth, the government would contract private firms to do the flying. The goal is to kill two birds with one budgetary allocation: the US would get to maintain its presence in space even while it injected badly-needed funds into the country's growing space tourism industry.
If the plan works out, the space industry in 2020 will look a lot like the airline industry a hundred years earlier. Until the 1920's, American planes were operated by the newly minted US Air Force. Then a bunch of small regional airlines began to develop, relying in no small part on guaranteed government air mail funding. In 1930 they merged into the corporation that became American Airlines, and the basis for modern civilian aviation was born.]]>
It's official, Twitter travel has gone intergalactic. NASA Flight Engineer TJ Creamer sent out space's first live tweet from the International Space Station, which has a wireless connection.
For his first tweet, Creamer encouraged his more than 27,000 tweeps to send him and his crew some questions: "Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station—the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s" ]]>
London: A value destination?
We all know how much list-making fanatics love the end of the year. It's prime time for looking back and rounding up "Best Of" lists, and for some, like the folks over at Lonely Planet, making predictions for the year to come.
So, what destinations are sure to be hot in 2010? Per USA Today, LP's picks for the Top 10 countries for travel include El Salvador, Germany, Greece, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Portugal, Malaysia, and Suriname. ]]>
The bad news is that the Russians are cutting off tourists from the International Space Station, which is how space tourism has been progressing until now. The heartening news is that the industry is developing elsewhere, with Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo finally making its debut in New Mexico:
On Monday 7th December Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo to the world at Mojave Spaceport, California. 800 press, future astronauts and VIP guests gathered in the desert for a press conference and to view the roll out of the world’s first commercial spaceline... Despite gale force winds and stormy weather, guests gathered on the runway after the press conference to see SpaceShipTwo for the first time. The spaceship was carried down the runway by her mothership, VMS Eve, to a spectacular display of lights, music and snow which only helped increase the anticipation of her arrival and excitement and awe as she appeared before the crowds.
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If you’re patiently awaiting the launch of Virgin Galactic, there’s something new to keep you entertained for a little bit. Bulldozers and cranes at Spaceport America in Las Cruces, New Mexico have been moving dirt and rocks around to get things ready for rockets, shuttles, and spaceships. Things have been progressing so well that public tours will begin in December—looks like a great holiday gift.
The tours will require a snazzy hardhat, because of course, it’s a work zone and they don’t want any lawsuits injuries. Visitors will learn all about the history of New Mexico from conquistadors to the state’s future in outer space tourism. The highlight of the tour will be to see the runway and the vertical launch pad up close and personal. Maybe you'll even be able to add your initials if the concrete is still wet. ]]>
If you want to be a space tourist today, pretty much your only option is to pay a space tourism company hundreds of millions of dollars to hook you up with the Russians. While that usually works—and it doesn't always—it's hardly what most people mean when they talk about broad-based "space tourism." They mean an industry where space is accessible as a luxury vacation option to a variety of tourists.
A new report on the industry insists that the only way to open up outer space is to start small: ]]>
While we thought their collection of songs for an playlist in space was just a joke, it looks like Virgin Galactic is still really serious about putting civilian folks into space. Richard Branson reportedly sold about a third of the space travel start-up to a Middle Eastern investment fund to speed up the
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson signed a deal Tuesday to sell about a third of his space travel startup Virgin Galactic to a Mideast investment fund, giving the venture an influx of cash at a time when the global recession has dried up funding sources.
Aabar Investments will pay $280 million for a 32 percent share of the company, according to the agreement that also gives the wealthy Persian Gulf sheikdom of Abu Dhabi a chance to set up its own space flight industry.
Branson of course, conducted the signing much like he does anything else related to his Virgin companies: he don a black Virgin flight suit and took his first ride in the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, designed to launch a ship into space (pictured, above, last summer). Virgin Galactic is expected to take off from Sweden in 2012 with flight tickets costing $200,000 a piece. Hmmm...we'll see about that.
Related Stories:
· Virgin Galactic Will Depart from Spaceport Sweden in 2012 [Jaunted]
· Virgin Galactic Launch: More Photos of White Knight Two [Jaunted]
· Space travel startup Virgin Galactic gets $280M boost from Abu Dhabi fund buying 32 pct share [AP via Chicago Tribune]]]>