Space Tourism Competition Heats Up

I think it’s a good idea to acclimatize to suborbital spaceflights before real spaceflight. Kind of like getting some of the initial jitters out for those who have them. And if you can’t stomach the suborbital flights, it’s a good indication you’re not ready for spaceflight.

With a new business partner in hand and a key engine test successfully behind it, a Canadian firm expects it soon will be in position to offer commercial suborbital spaceflights to tourists.

Details of Canadian Arrow's new partnership will be announced at press conferences in Canada and Chicago, where Kathuria is based, next week. However, the company did say it will be changing its name to PlanetSpace.

Canadian Arrow was among the two dozen contenders for the X Prize. So far, only SpaceShipOne has flown.

Although the prize money has been claimed, the real contest is for the successful commercial operation of one or more passenger spaceships. Rutan is designing a fleet of vehicles based on SpaceShipOne's design for London-based entrepreneur Richard Branson, head of Virgin Atlantic Airways and the Virgin Group.

dsc.discovery.com...

I wish the Russians had more business acumen and just for the fun of it produced a batch of Topol missiles in the space tourism version. It's already a prodcut, so rolling out a few should be that difficult.

"Topol ST", that sounds cool