Commercial space flights possible in 2008: US official

WASHINGTON, Feb 9, 2006 (AFP) - Commercial passenger flights into space could be authorized in the United States by 2008, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told a group of space entrepreneurs Thursday.

Based on test flights of privately developed passenger spacecraft planned for next year, Mineta said, the department could issue licenses for commercial flights by 2008.

"The timeline isn't based on science fiction," he said in a statement released by the department.

"It is a timeline based on the reality of where commercial space is today and where we expect the state of commercial space to be within two short years."

"We will move quickly to green-light flights that we know are safe," he told the Ninth Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington.

Mineta's comments came just months after SpaceShipOne, developed by US investors and space enthusiasts, snatched a 10 million dollar prize as the first private spacecraft to prove its mettle in two closely scheduled launches last October.

SpaceShipOne, developed by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, also smashed the sub-orbital flight altitude record, reaching 112 kilometers (69.6 miles) in its nearly 90-minute second flight in five days.

In December, British Virgin Group tycoon Richard Branson announced plans to build a commercial spaceport in New Mexico to launch his new Virgin Galactic space tourism business based on a second-generation, eight-passenger SpaceShipTwo that Rutan is developing.

With the southwestern US state also putting money into the project, construction could start as early as this year.

Branson said Rutan's company, which is partly financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, plans to build five of the new spacecraft, as well as a launch vehicle for them.

The prototype is expected to be finished next year and test flights are to start in 2008, according to Virgin.

Tickets for the first flights, which could start in 2009-2010, are expected to cost about 200,000 dollars, and some 40,000 people have already signed up, the company said in December.

Hmm, why not. But i dont think I've enough money...

Now to just scrouge up 200 grand, (looks under couch pillows)

NO..ewht there 2 c anyway?

NO..wht there 2 c anyway?

never, i'd get sick

oh, god...are they gonna let you go out in spacesuit and float around and whatnot? i think theyre are other things that are equally fun to do w/o having to spend that much money. but maybe i can put it on my life to do list

i rather spend the Money on Something else like a house or a expensive Car. besides don't you have to do all those gut ranching test.

I still have to visit most of earth.

i would love to..... its one of my dreams..... but i think ill do it when im already in my 30's or 40's.... and when the prizes go low..... heheheheh ;)

My boss is so cheap giving pay raises because he's putting all his money into his space shuttle and space hotel.

jbkayaker12 I've heard that! I'm your boss! Now your're fired....

:hahaha:

Low earth orbit on SpaceShipOne? No thanks! Only a few minutes staring at the dark sky floating around. I'd rather take a ride on the Russian soyuz to get to the ISS, although the ticket price will be in millions instead of thousands.

jbkayaker12 I've heard that! I'm your boss! Now your're fired....

:hahaha:

Hhahahaaa kidding aside, he is selling all his properties (hes got many properties) real estate mogul. He has been featured on CNN. This guy is for real.

Commercial space flights possible in 2008: US official

WASHINGTON, Feb 9, 2006 (AFP) - Commercial passenger flights into space could be authorized in the United States by 2008, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told a group of space entrepreneurs Thursday.

Based on test flights of privately developed passenger spacecraft planned for next year, Mineta said, the department could issue licenses for commercial flights by 2008.

"The timeline isn't based on science fiction," he said in a statement released by the department.

"It is a timeline based on the reality of where commercial space is today and where we expect the state of commercial space to be within two short years."

"We will move quickly to green-light flights that we know are safe," he told the Ninth Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington.

Mineta's comments came just months after SpaceShipOne, developed by US investors and space enthusiasts, snatched a 10 million dollar prize as the first private spacecraft to prove its mettle in two closely scheduled launches last October.

SpaceShipOne, developed by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, also smashed the sub-orbital flight altitude record, reaching 112 kilometers (69.6 miles) in its nearly 90-minute second flight in five days.

In December, British Virgin Group tycoon Richard Branson announced plans to build a commercial spaceport in New Mexico to launch his new Virgin Galactic space tourism business based on a second-generation, eight-passenger SpaceShipTwo that Rutan is developing.

With the southwestern US state also putting money into the project, construction could start as early as this year.

Branson said Rutan's company, which is partly financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, plans to build five of the new spacecraft, as well as a launch vehicle for them.

The prototype is expected to be finished next year and test flights are to start in 2008, according to Virgin.

Tickets for the first flights, which could start in 2009-2010, are expected to cost about 200,000 dollars, and some 40,000 people have already signed up, the company said in December.
what commercial carrier?

^
United Spacelines. ;)

Virgin has been talking about sending tourists to space for quite some time.

Very expansive. I prefer to do a lot of another things.

http://mackers-world.com/images/spacecraft/panam_orion.jpg

Only if they had some resort floating around the planet...otherwise no.

I do not think so...
:dunno:

Europe latest to unveil space tourism proposal

LE BOURGET, France, June 21 (Reuters) - Space is becoming less of a frontier, with Europe's aerospace company becoming the latest to propose a way for ordinary people -- albeit those with deep pockets -- to experience spaceflight.

Astrium, the space systems arm of European aerospace company EADS, says it wants to build a four-passenger rocket-equipped jet to send space tourists to an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) above the earth for three minutes of weightlessness and a rare view of Earth's curvature.

"We think there is a market for this, people are willing to pay," said Astrium's designer for the project, Jerome Bertrand.

At the Paris air show this week, Astrium's mock-up of the proposed spacecraft's front section showed specially designed seats that swivel to minimize discomfort for passengers travelling at three times the speed of sound. Astrium is seeking partners and hopes to be able to launch the project work next year, with the first space flights starting in 2012.

Once in space, the passengers can unbuckle to float around and gaze through any of the Astrium jet's 15 windows before the pilot guides the craft back to Earth.

The cost? As much as 200,000 euros ($268,000) for the flight, including a week's training.

Although steep, that is still a bargain compared to the $20 million that Russia charges for a seat on its Soyuz TMA-10 rocket for a trip to the International Space Station.

But next year, if preparations remain on schedule, Virgin Galactic, part of billionaire businessman Richard Branson's Virgin Group, will begin taking space tourists into suborbital space for $200,000 per ticket.

Virgin Galactic's six-passenger spacecraft is based on SpaceShipOne, which three years ago on Thursday took off from California's Mojave desert to punch through the atmosphere to become the world's first privately funded spacecraft.

Astrium's executive jet-sized craft is designed to take off from a normal runway, powered by two turbofan jet engines.

Once it reaches an altitude of 12 km (8 miles), it ignites a rocket derived from EADS Astrium's Ariane series burning liquid oxygen and methane to push the craft to 100 km above Earth.

Virgin Galactic's proposal is slightly different, where the craft is attached to a larger plane for take-off from the ground. It detaches at 50,000 feet (15 km) from the carrier aircraft before rocketing into sub-orbital space.

definitely! well, only if Iam financially capable

NO..wht there 2 c anyway?

i'd pay 200 grand to see this:

http://csc.gallaudet.edu/soarhigh/STS059-223-065.JPG

^^ Well, you've seen it now! What the point of paying 200 grand for it?

Is there a lot of risks involved in space traveling?

Is there a lot of risks involved in space traveling?

Potential visitors ought to go through a rigorous training process, most likely in a Russian facility. It's not exactly an 'I pay, I fly now' type of vacation.

Russian facility , eh? :| ......sounds risky:nuts:

^^ Well, you've seen it now! What the point of paying 200 grand for it?

why bother traveling to places here on earth then?

You get to meet new people, learn about new cultures etc. Space has no people no culture no vibrancy.

I think the fact that 40,000 people are willing to pay 200 grand for traveling in this spacecraft is a blessing in disguise. I'd easily wager that these 40,000 people are the richest billionaires in the world. This means totally 8 billion dollars spent by them will be helpful in funding space research, which hasn't quite been going well recently.

Besides who doesn't like to see the multi-millionaires spend at least some money on something (instead of simply accumulating more and more money)

Space tourism company still on the ground
25 September 2007

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Six years ago, a space tourism company announced plans to blast off from a spaceport in western Oklahoma and make spaceflight as common as commercial air travel for those who can afford the $200,000 ticket.

But the company, Rocketplane Global, has yet to get its spacecraft off the ground amid mounting financial problems that have forced staff cutbacks and threatens a commercial agreement between an orbital subsidiary, Rocketplane Kistler, and NASA to service the International Space Station.

In spite of financial and technical challenges, company officials said Rocketplane remains committed to flying passengers on suborbital flights more than 60 miles above the Earth from the Oklahoma Spaceport at the former Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in Burns Flat.

"We're doing fine," Rocketplane chairman and CEO George French Jr. said Tuesday. "We have not given up and we are heavily committed."

Design drawings and other specifics about the company's Rocketplane XP reusable spacecraft are scheduled to be rolled out at an X Prize event for space exploration and technology scheduled next month in New Mexico.

"We will be making some significant announcements at that time," French said. "We have new investment and we have other things that I can't talk about.

"We're still excited. We think the Oklahoma Spaceport is the best place in the world to do this."

Rocketplane, based in Oklahoma City, was founded in 2001. The Oklahoma Tax Commission named Rocketplane a qualified space transportation provider in July 2004, qualifying the company for almost $18 million in transferrable state tax credits -- credits that Rocketplane sold to help finance development of its suborbital spacecraft.

However, financial pressures related to development of a separate launch vehicle to serve as a commercial orbital transportation system for NASA slowed work on the Rocketplane XP spacecraft and the inauguration of suborbital flights from Oklahoma, French said.

"This is rocket science," he said. "Unfortunately, time and circumstance have not worked well for us."

Adding Rocketplane Kistler's orbital capabilities to Rocketplane Global's suborbital space tourism flights made the companies more viable. But earlier this month, NASA sent a failure-to-perform letter to Rocketplane, the first step toward potentially terminating the orbital launch service.

NASA pledged to contribute as much as $207 million to Rocketplane Kistler in August 2006 and laid out a series of milestones, technical and financial, that the company had to meet in order to receive payment.

"Rocketplane Kistler has missed two of the milestones at this point," said NASA spokeswoman Melissa Mathews. No final decision has been made on whether to terminate the contract, Mathews said.

In addition, an Illinois-based advertising agency that promotes space tourism sued Rocketplane last month, alleging that the company breached a contract by not reaching a series of benchmarks -- including raising about $500 million -- in preparation for conducting its first-sub-orbital flight in 2009.

The lawsuit says the company, Abercrombie & Kent, has spent more than $1 million to promote Rocketplane XP and prepare for ticket sales.

In spite of the difficulties, current and former Rocketplane executives said the company can still be a successful commercial space venture.

"It's purely a matter of getting it funded," said David Urie, former chief technical officer of Rocketplane Kistler who was laid off in May along with other employees.

Urie said Rocketplane's technical plan and business approach are sound. "It's all about the business," he said.

"It's a tough thing to do," said Charles Lauer, vice president of business development at Rocketplane Kistler. "It's challenging technically, but those are manageable. The financing side is much tougher than the technology is."

Although there is no definitive date for Rocketplane's first launch, officials at the Oklahoma Spaceport are still confident. The spacecraft will take off and land like a conventional airplane but reach heights of over 300,000 feet.

"We all want to have had it happen yesterday," said Bill Khourie, executive director of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority in Burns Flat. "Changes may be made that may bring about a delay."

No one has flown a suborbital vehicle since aerospace designer Burt Rutan won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in October 2004 by sending his SpaceShipOne rocket plane to the edge of space twice in five days.

"It's quite a challenge," Khourie said. "But they're moving ahead. The Rocketplane program is still alive and well."

ummm 200,000 dollars is like our 3 year income :lol:

ummm 200,000 dollars is like our 3 year income :lol:
just dont eat, drink, pay rent, water, gas, or electricity and you'll have it in three years. :lol:

Space industry liability bill clears Legislature
12 March 2013

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- The Legislature gave final approval Monday to a proposal that Gov. Susana Martinez says is critical for New Mexico to develop a commercial space travel industry.

Legislation to limit the liability of spacecraft manufacturers and their suppliers is heading to the Republican governor, who is expected to sign it into law.

While the proposal was pending in the Legislature, the state had placed on hold its negotiations with space tourism company Virgin Galactic for a long-term lease at New Mexico's spaceport, which has cost taxpayers more than $200 million.

British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic plans on flying tourists into space from the nearly complete spaceport in southern New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic, as a space travel operator, already is shielded under a 2010 law from being sued in most cases by passengers or their families if there is an accident during a flight.

The legislation will extend the liability limitations to suppliers and manufacturers of spacecraft and their components.

The restrictions on damage lawsuits will apply only to passengers — not to people and property on the ground.

Other states, including Florida, Texas and Colorado, have agreed to liability limits in hopes of developing commercial space travel industries.

The New Mexico measure had stalled in previous years but cleared the Legislature this session without opposition after Virgin Galactic and trial lawyers agreed on the scope of the legal protections and a provision requiring companies to carry $1 million in insurance to qualify for the liability protections.

"For two years, Gov. Martinez has called for legislation that makes New Mexico a more competitive place for commercial spaceflight and protects the investment taxpayers have already made in Spaceport America. This measure is long overdue, and she is hopeful that it will improve New Mexico's competitiveness in this industry," said Enrique Knell, a spokesman for the governor.

The measure won final approval when the House unanimously agreed to a Senate-passed version of the proposed liability shield.

The legislative session ends Saturday and many major issues remain unresolved, including a state budget and proposals to revamp public employee and educational pension plans to improve their long-term solvency.

___

Follow Barry Massey on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bmasseyAP