Space Adventures

- Soyuz TM-32 Preparing to launch Dennis Tito -

It is your time, private space explorer!
What if you could pay for a ticket to space, the same way you buy an airplane ticket to your favorite vacation destination? Could space travel be that easy? It already is, thanks to a company called Space Adventures. They are the first and only company to date, to have sent private space explorers to the International Space Station. They have finally opened the door for the rest of us, the private space explorers, to go to space.

In this post, I'll be covering the company Space Adventures, the space flights it offers (present and future), and the amazing individuals it has flown to space thus far.

Click to read more ...

My Top 10 for 2010

 Tweet

What a year it has been!
Private space has grown by leaps and bounds this year. This year was marked by commercial companies achieving major milestones, new partnerships, and surprisingly, a good amount of NASA funding to help the industry along. Here is my little take on the year, hope you enjoy...

Click to read more ...

Bring in the Competitor...

Tweet

-Image by Satoru Kikuchi-

Competition

We need competition in space! Yes, competition. We need companies who will be willing to go the extra mile for their customer, to provide them the safest ride to and from space. We need it done effectively, and we need the price to come down drastically. We need a new space market that would allow people to get excited about the future of space, and help regular people realize the possibilities of this grand solar system which they ignore everyday. 

Actually, all of this already exists.

We saw the beginnings of this space market through the work of MirCorp, the first private space business. We witnessed the Ansari X Prize, when Scaled Composites won the 10 Million prize for sending their vehicle into space. Quickly afterwards, Virgin Galactic was created, who will be sending thousands of people up to space very soon. Virgin Galactic has drastically brought down the flight of space travel. It is normal to see people getting rides into space for $50-$100 million, now it will be done for only $200,000 ( that is .4% of 50 million). That is insane.

Can the price of space travel get lower? check this out...

Click to read more ...

MirCorp: The Birth of Private Space

Tweet

-Shot of the Mir Space Station from Space Shuttle Discovery-

In no other time in our history have we had as many dedicated space companies and organizations as we do now. We believe now, more than ever, that space travel can be affordable for everyone. The same excitement the world had for the Apollo missions of the 60's, will be revisited once again very soon by new space companies. 

Just in the past decade we have seen the arrival of many great companies leading the new space charge. There are some which I have already dedicated some writing time to, such as SpaceX, Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace, and Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites/Virgin Galactic. So many young, and promising companies, all founded within the past decade.

Is it a mere coincidence that so many private space companies have been emerging only within the past decade? No.

Click to read more ...