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British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, has teamed up with aerospace designer, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites to form a new aerospace production company. The new firm will build a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft.

As the drama surrounding the space shuttle’s return to flight continues, NASA is forced to deal with two major, interrelated problems. The first is how to fly the shuttle safely until its planned retirement in 2010. Obviously, they will not be able to fly all 28 flights currently scheduled. This means the International Space Station (ISS) will not be completed as planned. Some of the ISS hardware will either have to be left on Earth, or a way to get it into orbit without using the shuttle will have to be found. This will be difficult since the modules and...

EDITORIAL Rocket science isn't just for rocket scientists anymore, at least not just those who are funded by the U.S. government. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, himself a "rocket scientist" who has worked both sides of the public/private street, tried to pound that point home last week with a bracing call for private enterprise to carry crew and cargo to the International Space Station. Let's hope he's taken seriously, in and out of the government. Griffin's remarks to the Space Transportation Assn. continued a commercial-space policy started by his predecessor, Sean O'Keefe, under the umbrella of President Bush's space exploration...

Since the successful flights of SpaceShipOne last fall, a number of new space tourism ventures have been announced, all promising to provide prospective customers with a suborbital spaceflight experience. The most recent example was announced last week with the formation of Planetspace, a venture using technology developed by one of the former X Prize competitors, Canadian Arrow, with funding proffered by former MirCorp investor Chirinjeev Kathuria. All seek to tap the interest in suborbital space tourism ignited, in part, by the SpaceShipOne flights—even if some of these new ventures are a little sketchy on technical and financial details.

Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Hearing Charter: Future Markets for Commercial Space Future Markets for Commercial Space April 20, 2005 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon 2318 Rayburn House Office Building Purpose: On Wednesday, April 20, at 9:30 a.m., the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing to examine the future of the commercial space market and the government's role in that future. Last year, the President signed into law the Science Committee's Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, which dealt with regulating one aspect of commercial space - private, human suborbital flights, which are generally intended for space tourism....

At New York International Auto Show, Thursday, March 24, 11:50 a.m. WHAT: Volvo Cars of North America will be joined by billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson to unveil the winner of a trip on a sub-orbital flight to space on Sir Richard's Virgin Galactic. WHEN: Thursday, March 24, 2005 11:50 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. (video and still photographers should arrive at 11:35 a.m. for positioning) WHERE: Volvo Cars of North America Level 3, Booth 204 2005 New York International Auto Show Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 11th Ave. between 34th & 39th Sts. New York City. WHO: Sir Richard Branson,...

The way we think about the Moon and the amount of money we are willing to invest in the Moon are tied up in how it appears in writing and how we emphasize it when talking. A capitalized Moon is rising. The Moon needs to move beyond the timid exploration we first saw in Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon in 1865 and remain saddled with 140 years later. Once the Moon is redefined as a place to enjoy and not just to explore, the money will follow with a capital M. As we change how we think...

XCOR Aerospace thanked and congratulated President Bush on signing HR 5382, "The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004," into law today. This important bipartisan legislation updates the Commercial Space Launch Act and puts commercial human space flight on a clear legal foundation. The bill also takes other important steps to improve the regulatory environment and reduce investor uncertainty facing this new industry. HR 5382 will help harness the power of private enterprise to the task of making space travel affordable for all of us. "Ultimately, we must give credit to the elected officials who put their reputations on the...

A site calling itself www.democrats.com has a series of hysterical posts about TransOrbital's plan to send a private mission to the Moon. "While Nation Looks the Other Way on 9/11 Anniversary, Bush Gives Moon to Private Corporation for 'Industrial Development' Like all the other international laws, Bush is now ignoring those pertaining to space. As America is distracted by 9/11 remembrances and warnings of new threats, His Heinous has turned the moon over to a private, for-profit corporation called TransOrbital that has a far-reaching, frigthening agenda for the corporate domination of space. All TransOrbital had to do was promise not...