Sometimes a Spaceport isn’t a spaceport

For months attention (and a little bit of ridicule) has focused on plans in the Wisconsin State Legislature to create a state aerospace authority charged primary with developing a state spaceport for commercial spacecraft, such as in the lakeshore town of Sheboygan. The bill has passed both houses of the state legislature and is expected […]

Virgin Galactic, Space Adventures, and trash talking

There are several companies competing in the suborbital tourism market: Virgin Galactic, Rocketplane, Space Adventures, among others. By in large the companies have said little about each other in public, other than a few glittering generalities or, at worst, some very general dismissals of unnamed rivals. In the cover story of the latest issue of […]

Goldin: spaceflight is for “highly trained professionals”

An article in The Sunday Telegraph about Virgin Galactic and space tourism scores something of a coup: a quote from former NASA administrator Dan Goldin, who rarely talks to the press. Under Goldin’s leadership, as many readers may recall, NASA was staunchly opposed to the flight of Dennis Tito, the first space tourist to visit […]