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| Friday / 31 March 2006 | ||
Who Can Fly
Me to the Top of the Blue Marble 1st? It's
happened. Someone has predicted a frontrunner in the space tourism
industry other than Virgin
Galactic. CNN says Space
Adventures may
be the first company to take paying customers to suborbital space.
Space Adventures' recent press releases feature
optimistic statements by its President and CEO Eric Anderson. "We
will enable operations of the world's first commercial suborbital
flights,"
Anderson
states. Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn told the Daily
Telegraph that his company was "not in
the slightest bit" concerned with the bold Space Adventures claim,
saying he was still confident they would be first. At this point
it is hard to determine a favorite. Virgin Galactic has Virgin mogul
Richard
Branson's billions and the proven SpaceShipOne design backing
them up, whereas Space Adventures is already established and is the
only
company to have sent paying customers to space -- three times
to the International Space Station. Virgin recently announced
that Virgin Atlantic airline pilots have the first opportunity to
become Virgin Galactic astronaut pilots. The firm has recruited
several
celebrities for its flights, and says it already
has
156
firm reservations for its US$200K trips from Upham NM. Space Adventures,
using Russia instead of America-made spaceships, is offering their
trips from Singapore and Dubai for only $100K each. Other contenders
are Rocketplane Kistler and PlanetSpace with Canadian Arrow. The
four
potential providers have
been
citing dates that range from late 2006 to 2009 for their first passenger
flights, though the latter date is more reliable, according to experts
like US Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta. More info www.spaceagepub.com.
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