Space Tourism: Will Go Far, Or Fizzle Out?

"Space Tourism: Will Go Far, Or Fizzle Out?"," Spaceport America, located in Upham, New Mexico, is the world's first commercial spaceport, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic the world's first self-proclaimed ""spaceline"" and the facility's anchor tenant.
 Orbital facilities are being marketed to governments as an alternative to the International Space Station, one reason Bigelow has approached the Canadian government about a ground facility.
 Other companies are selling and marketing tickets to go to space.
com.
 He has a master's degree in science, technology and public policy from The George Washington University.
 (He also holds a bachelor's in journalism from Rider University.


There are hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into the space tourism industry, but the question that seems to persist is whether space tourism is for real.
 The biggest is money and right now companies like Virgin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace are the current frontrunners in the effort to send ""citizen astronauts"" into space.
 Then there is what could be called the ""X"" factor, a type of manifest destiny-based momentum that is carrying forward our natural compulsion as humans to gravitate beyond what we already know.


Companies like Virgin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin Aerospace, Armadillo Aerospace, Excalibur Almaz, Bigelow Aerospace and, just recently, Boeing are all waist deep in a mini space race, each eagerly positioning themselves to become the first company to begin sending spaceships filled with private tourists on suborbital and, eventually, orbital flights.


""Virgin has a lot of money and prestige behind it,"" Messier told NewSpace Magazine.
 They just completed another test flight.
 One question is their engine: they still need to do a lot of testing.


But, if Virgin Galactic is Goliath, XCOR and Armadillo are the ""Davids"" of the story.
 ""XCOR is the expert at engines and I think they have a workable design and their funding now seems solid.
 There seems to be a lot of people interested in doing this (visiting space).
 But I think there is a market.
 The Russians have been sending the very wealthy to the ISS (International Space Station) for years.
 ""The price has gone up to about $45 million for a 10-day to two-week mission.
""

That will change once private companies catch up, finding viable, safe and cost-effective avenues for putting paying customers into orbit.
 At least one company, Excalibur Almaz has already don that.


Former Excalibur employee and current Boise State University Professor Clay Morgan has intimated the company may intend to eventually send tourists around the moon and back.
 Orbital Sciences Corporation may also convert its Cygnus freighter for human missions.


These ventures, and others, are vying for funding under NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program.
 ""It's only about 250 miles up, but right now governments have a monopoly on it.
 In ten years, the space industry could be totally unrecognizable.
 NASA is now relying on the private sector to continue development efforts from the Earth to the moon while it tries to adjust to a new mission mandate.
nasa.
 The efforts are intended to foster entrepreneurial activity leading to job growth in engineering, analysis, design, and research, and to economic growth as capabilities for new markets are created.
S.
 In 2009, NASA used its Space Act authority to invest up to $50 million dollars in multiple competitively awarded, funded agreements.


""It's a complicated issue.
 ""The vehicles they were building were too expensive, weren't going to get us to the moon very fast and there would be so much money going into a lunar base, we wouldn't have enough money left to do anything with it.
""

With the space tourism industry about to take off, literally, the economic effects, according to Messier, could be significant, with thousands of new jobs and careers made available to the public.
 ""Bigalow has talked about 20 or more flights per year to sustain its space stations.
 Ticket prices between companies vary, even now, roughly 16 months before Virgin Galactic launches its first flight.
 Armadillo is selling its seats at about $102,000.


But what is it about space that causes people to throw down such cold, hard cash for a few minutes above the Earth? Does being in space change the average person's perspective on what it means to be a human on this planet? Some say it does, but Messier, who has never been to space, isn't sure.
 That will be interesting,"" he said.
 And, it's probably true.
 Virgin would love to have repeat customers, so it's in the company's interest to have people come back again and again.


Many of those were youth caught in the mesmerizing current of wonder and excitement generated by the space race of the 1960's.


The wait ended for a handful of hopefuls, beginning in 2001, when Dennis Tito hitched a ride with the Russians to the International Space Station at a cost of $20 million.


But things have changed: the fact that millions of dollars are being spent on constructing spaceports all over the world is a very tangible sign this space tourism thing truly is for real.