Space Adventures announced today that Daisuke “Dice-K” Enomoto has been officially confirmed as a member of the Soyuz TMA-9 crew that will fly to the ISS in September, alongside Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria. Enomoto had, of course, been in training for this flight for months. Anousheh Ansari was also named to the backup crew should Enomoto not be able to fly for some reason; it’s assumed that eventually she, too, will fly to the ISS, although it’s not clear when.

The launch of the first subscale prototype of Bigelow Aerospace’s inflatable habitats is being delayed by about a month. The company announced Tuesday that the launch, which had been scheduled for June 16 (and is still listed as such on the official Roskosmos launch schedule) will be delayed to July 4-14. “This delay is necessary due to special preparations that the launch provider is continuing to make for our flight,” the company reported on its web site. (Also see an MSNBC.com article.) The company said it is still taking reservations for carrying photos and memorabilia on the Genesis 2 launch, planned for later this year; if the July launch goes well the company will contact people who made reservations to complete their transactions.

The Australian news service AAP reports that pilots with Virgin Blue, the discount carrier that operates in Australia and New Zealand, have been invited to apply to become pilots for Virgin Galactic. Similar offers have been made to pilots for other Virgin Airlines; two of Virgin Blue’s 572 pilots are expected to be selected. About half of Virgin Galactic’s pilots are expected to come from its airlines, with the rest to be recruited from NASA (which has a surplus of astronauts).

Those selected will undergo a rigorous training program lasting 27 months: nine months of jet aircraft and zero-g flight training, nine months of “mission control work”, and nine months of “flying empty Virgin Galactic Spaceships into space.” The Virgin Blue pilots selected for Virgin Galactic might end up flying their current boss: Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey is “booked on one of the first space passenger flights”; presumably he is one of Virgin Galactic’s 100 “Founders”.

Recently-retired NASA astronaut Eileen Collins returned to her hometown of Elmira, New York, over the weekend, giving the commencement address at Elmira College. The local newspaper, the Elmira Star-Gazette, used the opportunity to publish excerpts of previous interviews with Collins, including this question on space tourism:

What is your take on private space travel, and do you see that as something that will become more common and more affordable?

I am a huge supporter of getting more people in space. I think the idea of space tourism is great. The experiences I have had have been so much fun that I would like other people to have the same experiences.

In a companion article, Collins reveals she’d like to go back to space as a tourist: “I would like to be a space tourist someday, but I’m not going to go unless I know it’s safe.” Safe, like, say, the shuttle?

Sam Dinkin, founder of Space Shot, the company started earlier this year to provide suborbital space tourism prizes to people who win its weather prediction contests, let me know that the company is providing a survey to gauge interest in potential improvements to the game and the site, including different price points for entering the competition, suggestions for different ways of playing or even competitions different from the current one, predicting the weather in Central Park. As an inducement for completing the 18-question survey, Space Shot is offering two contest entries for the price of one.

Michael Belfiore revealed yesterday afternoon that not only was Bigelow Aerospace planning to unveil a new web site, it was going to announce a new service: it will fly photos or other small mementos on its prototype modules it will be launching starting this year. The first Genesis module, scheduled for launch on June 16 on a Dnepr, will carry 1,000 items provided by Bigelow employees; they will drift inside the module and be visible on video camera within the module. Starting with the Genesis 2 launch (in September if all goes well), the company will allow members of the public to fly items for a price.

The new web site went live last night. The home page looks a little cheesy, with the planet images representing various parts of the site and the cursor turning into an “alien” face that serves as a company logo, but overall the site is a step up from previous iterations. The “Fly Your Stuff” program allows people to send their photos or small items to space for $295. The company also plans to provide video feeds from both within and outside the Genesis modules. Slightly creepy, though, is the “Life and Death” feature: “We anticipate being able to display images of living systems flown aboard Bigelow Aerospace spacecraft.” What sort of “living systems” remains undefined. (Of course, if you think that’s a great idea, you can let them know through their online questionnaire.)