As space tourism grows, various spaceports are envisioned in various locales.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
"An artist's rendering of a proposed commercial spaceport in the United Arab Emirates." (Space Adventures)
NEW MEXICO
"This spaceport concept shows a runway in the New Mexico desert as well as Virgin Galactic's iris-themed logo. Most of the facilities would be underground." (Virgin)
Norman Foster's Design
SINGAPORE
"The Spaceport will help establish Singapore as a leading force in global tourism."
Further Reading:
NY Times: More Enter Race to Offer Space Tours
New Mexico lays out its spaceport plan
Spaceport Singapore
New Mexico Spaceport Authority
Add to favorites
Space Agents are one of the avenues that someone may take to place a deposit for a Virgin Galactic flight.
Some excerts from an interview with a certified space agent Kristy Adler:
The main interest come from either adventure seeks ("been there, done that" crowd) or space fanactics. Mostly males have shown interest. Interest seems mainly initial now as few people have placed deposits, compared with level of requests for info.
Once someone pays their deposit (level of deposit correlates to place in line), someone must complete release forms for legal and medical purposes.
They will receive a target date once application is received and must complete training prior to flight.
All Space Agents were trained at Kennedy Space Center and met directly with Virgin staff to learn about marketing and product.
http://microsites.virtuoso.com/VirginGalactic/KristyAdler/default.htm
http://www.virgingalactic.com/htmlsite/book.php
Add to favorites
Virgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which plans to offer sub-orbital spaceflights and later orbital spaceflights to the paying public.
Virgin Galactic's mission is to allow non-professional astronauts to fly to an altitude of slightly over 100 km, allowing each passenger to experience weightlessness for up to 6 minutes. Each seat will be sold for US$200,000.
Virgin Galactic is aiming to be the first space tourism company specializing in the provision of sub-orbital flights to the public. This is a new area. While orbital flights can be made by budding space tourists through the Russian Space Agency, there are presently no operational craft capable of sub-orbital flight aside from SpaceShipOne. However, EADS are currently working on a competing sub-orbital craft. Given that SpaceShipOne was designed for a very specific task, Virgin Galactic have commisioned Burt Rutan to design a newer, bigger and better version of his suborbital craft, called SpaceShipTwo. It is this eight seater craft, seating 2 pilots and 6 passengers, which will be used by Virgin Galactic passengers.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/flash.html
Space Ship One
Add to favorites (1)
"Over the next decade Space Adventures will fly more people to space than have made the journey since the dawn of the Space Age. Our clients will fly on suborbital flights, on voyages to Earth orbit and on historic expeditions that circumnavigate the moon. Flights will leave from spaceports both on Earth and in space, visiting private space stations, and aboard dozens of different vehicles. By continually providing newly available space experiences and improving existing space experiences, Space Adventures will continue to lead the private spaceflight industry that it begun in 2001 with the flight of the world's first space tourist."
http://www.spaceadventures.com/
Add to favorites
From the economics to design to viability, what are the physical and sociological mechanisms behind space tourism?
A once govermental and scientific enterprise — space travel — is quickly becoming a private, pleasure-oriented commercial industry. Where did this come from and where is it going?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-tourism1.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tourism
http://www.space.com/spacetourism/
Add to favorites (1)
As space tourism enters the tourism market, efforts are made that it becomes profitable with upside and growth potiential. The Space Tourism Society aims to do just that by introducting logical goals and solutions to the private enterprise of space tourism.
http://www.spacetourismsociety.org/Home.html
Add to favorites
Add comment
