Skyline of Richmond, Virginia

Waiting on Explorer

11.01.06

Flight International reports that Prodea Systems, the company founded by the Ansari family, has yet to make a decision on investing in the development of the Explorer suborbital vehicle proposed by Russia’s Myasishchev Design Bureau. The article notes that “Anousheh Ansari says the company is only funding a feasibility study that will continue for several months.” What isn’t clear from this report is if this schedule for such a study was planned all along or represents something of a delay in Explorer’s development. Back in February Space Adventures, which will market the Explorer flights, said that this would be the “first suborbital spaceflight tourism vehicles, but if a decision to proceed with funding and development doesn’t come until early next year, they’ll be hard-pressed to beat Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Rocketplane’s XP unless they have a very fast development schedule.