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The quartet of newly minted citizen astronauts comprising the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission were due to splash down in the Atlantic off Florida on Saturday, completing a three-day flight of the first all-civilian crew ever launched into Earth orbit. To prepare for atmospheric re-entry and return to Earth, the SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle completed two rocket "burns" on Friday to lower its altitude and line up the capsule's trajectory with the targeted landing site. The Dragon capsule, dubbed Resilience, is scheduled to parachute into the sea around 7 p.m. Eastern time, shortly before sunset, according to SpaceX, the private rocketry company...

Join us for the first live, on-orbit update from the Inspiration4 crew – the world’s first all-civilian human spaceflight to orbit!The Inspiration4 mission is part of Jared’s ambitious fundraising goal to give hope to all kids with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Visit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® to learn how you can help the Inspiration4 crew reach their $200M fundraising goal.During their multi-day journey in orbit, the Inspiration4 crew will conduct scientific research designed to advance human health on Earth and for future long-duration spaceflights.Inspiration4 | In-Flight Update with the Crew | Streamed live 5 hours ago | SpaceX

I care about the future; therefore, I care about the climate. I belong to the vast majority of global citizens who, as poll after poll show, are concerned about the direction the planet is heading and understand the urgency and existential nature of the impending climate emergency. The recent catastropic flooding in central Europe and extreme high temperatures in North America are just a few symptoms of this. So in my family, we do something about it. We scrimp and save on our carbon budget: we walk or ride bikes instead of driving our car; we eat dramatically less meat...

Space tourism startup Space Perspective successfully completed its first unmanned test flight Friday of a gigantic balloon that will soon take humans to the edge of space. Its Neptune Once spaceship test vehicle took off from the Space Coast Air and Spaceport in Cape Canaveral and hit its planned altitude of 108,409 feet where it hovered for six hours before splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico. Space Perspective's Spaceship Neptune will host nine people and a mini bar, all of which will be encased in large windows. The 'cruise' would entail a two-hour ascent into the atmosphere, where it...

Jeff Bezos announced on Monday that he and his brother will join the first crewed spaceflight from his private rocket company on July 20 — just 15 days after he is set to step down as chief executive of Amazon. "Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space," he wrote in an Instagram post. "On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend." In May, the Amazon founder's rocket company, Blue Origin, announced that its first flight aboard its New Shepard rocket, designed to carry up...

Blue Origin launched and landed New Shepard rocket on Wednesday, April 14 at 10:56 AM CDT (15:56 UTC) from Corn Ranch Spaceport, Texas. This was Blue Origin’s 15th uncrewed flight of its New Shepard rocket. New Shepard is designed to take people and payloads to suborbital space and back. It is expected to start sending space tourists this year. Ticket reservations are still on hold.

Neil Armstrong is the keynote speaker at the suborbital conference, which has just started in Palo Alto. I’ll be live blogging his speech. Alan Stern is introing him, describing him as a pioneer in suborbital spaceflight with the X-15. [Standing ovation] Thanks for the warm welcome, and appreciate the opportunity to describe suborbital flight generations back. As a boy was an admirer of great aircraft designers, and in recent decades, Burt Rutan has earned a place on that list. Burt occasionally ribs the government for spending hundred of millions to attain same altitude as he did with SS1. Back in...

A decade of commercial space flight would have a devastating impact on climate change and global temperatures, according to a new study.Scientists believe that vast amounts of black soot created by a new generation of spacecraft could lead to temperatures in polar regions rising by as mush as one degree Celsius.The study comes as the dream of whisking tourists edged closer to reality with the official opening of the runway at the world's first commercial spaceport by Sir Richard Branson.The billionaire said he expects flights for space tourists to begin in nine to 18 months,

With NASA Administrator Charles Bolden taking tentative steps toward more free market possibilities for America’s space program—and even mentioning the once-unspeakable topic of “space tourism”—a clown from Canada is already orbiting the Earth. An Associated Press story entitled “Canadian circus billionaire heads to space station” notes that "a Canadian circus tycoon, an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off in a spacecraft from the Kazakh steppe Wednesday on a journey to the International Space Station." The AP account continues: A Canadian circus tycoon, an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off in a spacecraft from the Kazakh steppe...

LONDON (Reuters) - Long-haul trips could be made in spaceships instead of planes in 20 years' time if Virgin's efforts to commercialize space travel succeed, the president of Virgin Galactic told Reuters in an interview. Will Whitehorn said Virgin's plans to take tourists into space were just a first stage that could open up a range of possibilities for the company including space science, computer server farms in space and replacing long-haul flights. Virgin Galactic, part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, has collected $40 million in deposits from would-be space tourists including physicist Stephen Hawking and ex-racing driver Niki Lauda,...

A California aerospace company plans to enter the space tourism industry with a two-seat rocket ship capable of suborbital flights to altitudes more than 37 miles above the Earth. The Lynx, about the size of a small private plane, is expected to begin flying in 2010, according to developer Xcor Aerospace, which planned to release details of the design at a news conference Wednesday. The company also said that, pending the outcome of negotiations, the Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded it a research contract to develop and test features of the Lynx. No details were released. Xcor's announcement comes...

Entrepreneur Richard Branson today unveiled a model of the spaceship he hopes will be the first to take paying passengers into space on a regular basis next year. Branson, whose Virgin Galactic is one of several commercial enterprises vying to offer the ultimate in sightseeing, said his SpaceShipTwo will start test flights later this year.Two thousand eight is going to be the year of the spaceship. We're excited about this, and everything it will do," said Branson at a media event at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan." Virgin Galactic, part of Branson's airline, vacation and retail company...

Building Viable Space Markets high value spam in a can by Simon Mansfield Publisher, SpaceDaily.com Gerroa - Dec 5, 2001 Space Tourism was given a major boost this week with the second commercial astronaut - Mark Shuttleworth - being signed by Russia for a flight in a Soyuz to the International Space Station. It's the opinion of this publisher, that this is a critical step forward in opening up of new business opportunities in space that are key to driving down costs and expanding the scope of all space activities. Once again it's an American company - Space Adventures - ...

Virgin Galactic's leadership pushed back the flight test and in-service dates for the space tourism company's suborbital launch system, just before the SpaceShipTwo (SS2)-related test explosion on 26 July that killed and injured employees of the vehicle's developer Scaled Composites. Speaking at the EAA AirVenture event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on 24 July Virgin Galactic chief operating officer Alex Tai announced a new in-service date of "end of 2009, beginning of 2010". Since 2004 the start date has steadily slipped from early 2007, to 2008, to May 2009, and now late 2009 or 2010. At the Farnborough air show last year...

There are reasons why "rocket science" is the quintessential hard thing to do. Last week's fatal explosion at Scaled Composites' desert test site, where the historic SpaceShipOne rocket plane was born, showed just how hard and tragic rocket science can be. Even SpaceShipOne's greatest successes came amid great risk - and that message comes through loud and clear in "Rocketeers," the fruit of more than three years of research, interviews and rocket tours by freelance journalist Michael Belfiore. The book is subtitled "How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers and Pilots Is Boldly Privatizing Space," and chronicles the work...

Rocketeers By Michael Belfiore Smithsonian, 305 pages, $26.95 American space exploration had a rough time of it on Thursday. NASA's already bruised reputation took a one-two punch with revelations that on at least two occasions astronauts were allowed to fly even though they were intoxicated and that a computer due to be delivered to the International Space Station in August had been sabotaged. The news might have bolstered the case for the increasingly robust efforts at privately funded space ventures, except Thursday also brought news of a deadly explosion at a Mojave Desert airport where a propellant system for a...

Just a few years ago, the idea of bankrolling starry-eyed ventures to fly ordinary people into space was laughed off as science fiction. Now some investors are betting on space tourism as the next big thing. The infant industry got a boost in June when a Boston-area investment group backed a private rocket company developing a spaceship that will take off and land like an airplane. Pravda.ru has interviewed two space tourism experts to find out more about the future of space tourism industry.

As an investment opportunity this plan is way out there. It’s questionable, too, in terms of the planet’s future well being. An Associated Press article this week reported that a Boston-area investment group, Boston Harbor Angels, which consists of fat cats with money to spare, is teaming up with an outfit called XCOR Aerospace of Mojave to launch a space tourism venture. According to the AP, XCOR is building a “reusable suborbital vehicle named Xerus” and if all goes as planned, travelers aboard the Xerus would “experience up to 3 minutes of weightlessness some 62 miles about Earth.” The rocket...

LOS ANGELES -- Just a few years ago, the idea of bankrolling starry-eyed ventures to fly ordinary people into space was laughed off as science fiction. Now some investors are betting on space tourism as the next big thing. The infant industry got a boost in June when a Boston-area investment group backed a private rocket company developing a spaceship that will take off and land like an airplane. The deal between Boston Harbor Angels and XCOR Aerospace, believed to be the first investment by a group of angel investors in a commercial launch company, raised hopes that others will...

ASPEN, Colo. — You don't have to pack your bags quite yet, but passenger travel to the Moon is on the flight manifest of a space tourism company. The price per seat will slap your wallet or purse for a swift $100 million — but you'll have to get in line as the first voyage is already booked. Space Adventures, headquartered in Vienna, Va., is in negotiations with the customers who will fly the first private expedition to fly around the Moon. "I hope to have those contracts signed by the end of the year," said Eric Anderson, Space Adventures'...