Space tourism legislation makes comeback
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After weathering the ups and downs of the lame-duck legislative process, legislation that would open the way for suborbital space tourism was cleared by the House and sent on to the Senate for final congressional approval.
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Thrill seekers are plunking down six figures to ride rockets that haven't even been built yet, and a new airline called Virgin Galactic promises to be up and soaring in the next three years. Still, the budding space tourism faces a myriad of safety concerns &#151; in the sky and on the ground &#151; that must be resolved before any paying passenger takes off.
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Monday&#39;s triumphant second flight of SpaceShipOne is a perfect example of private business taking up where government left off and improving an idea.
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MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA -- While SpaceShipOneâs wispy contrail from sky to space quickly vanished into the thin desert air here, Mondayâs flight at Mojave Spaceport left a solid line in the sand -- to create a &quot;new space age&quot; of personal space travel.
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Sir Richard Branson announces that he has signed an agreement to develop the world&#39;s first privately funded space travel. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA.
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Now that rocketmen in the desert have soared into space and captured the St. Louis-based Ansari X Prize, commercial space travel seems as close as ever.
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By MIKE SCHNEIDER  and ERIN McCLAM, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS  ORLANDO, Fla.  In July, astronaut Lisa Nowak traveled 5.3 million miles in a single-minded mission to put America's beleaguered space shuttle program back on track.
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Also: Congress OKs private spaceflight bill. [News.com Extra]
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Russia's space program is recovering from its post-Soviet financial meltdown, but government spending is still just a fraction of what is needed to revive the program to its former glory, top Russian space experts said Monday.
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London - Space tourism, the business of rocketing civilians into orbit as British tycoon Richard Branson vowed on Monday to do, is technically feasible within a few years but fraught with perils, a space expert said.
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CLEVELAND, OH -- As NASA readies the space shuttle fleet to fly again, the agencyâs risk management teams are also paying attention to risk issues that affect the International Space Station.
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With a green light from Congress, NASA is moving swiftly to carry out President Bush&#39;s ambitious plan to return robots and humans to the moon and eventually to Mars.
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One short flight for man, or the start of a long voyage for rich men. That&#39;s one way of looking at Monday&#39;s historic jaunt of the revolutionary spacecraft SpaceShipOne, which crossed the brink of space for the second time in six days.
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Manned space-travel enthusiasts hope to salvage planned trips to the moon and beyond, which are quickly taking a back seat to more earthly matters amid market meltdowns.
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China is drafting laws governing outer space, state media on Monday quoted the country's first astronaut as saying at a time when Beijing's space drive is drawing growing international concern.
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The advent of space tourism is one step closer with the safe return this week of a private manned rocketship from âthe edge of spaceâ.
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Arianespace chief Jean-Yves Le Gall explains the significance of the return to flight of Europe's  Ariane 5-ECA rocket.