Space Tourism
Recreational space travel
The Rutan Turkey Timer
Today's New York Times dining section features the Perfect Roast Timer, by Kikkerland in SoHo. Florence Fabricant writes "Just when I thought the chicken should be ready...the legs of the timer whipped straight up from horizontal to vertical."In case there is any doubt that the Perfect Roast Timer...
November 17, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
November Book Club Selection: My Dream of Stars
Space traveler and entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari will discuss her book and answer questions online from November 15 to 19.
November 10, 2010 |
By The Editors
Three Million Miles in Ten Days
Floating off to sleep, Earthgazing, making sure the capsule doesn't depressurize: all standard on a space vacation.
October 22, 2010 |
By Gregory Olsen
First Flight for VSS Enterprise
Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceship, the VSS Enterprise, made its first piloted free flight and landing yesterday in Mojave, California. Pete Siebold was at the controls.
October 11, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Boeing's New Spaceship
The aerospace giant teams up with the world’s only space tourism agency to ferry passengers to orbit.
September 16, 2010 |
By Paul Hoversten
Inspiration
Former space shuttle commander Frank Culbertson stepped up to the podium inside a hearing room in the Rayburn House office building yesterday morning, and talked about inspiration. He turned to his left and thanked moon walker Buzz Aldrin for a kind gesture last year during a visit to the Johnson S...
September 15, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Stripped-Down Spaceflight in Denmark
However the Copenhagen Suborbitals project turns out, you have to give these people points for nerve. The eventual plan is to launch a human to an altitude of 100 kilometers inside a capsule barely large enough to fit one person, standing up. For the moment, the Danish team would be happy just to l...
August 24, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
SpaceShipTwo Gets a Pilot
Some nice scenes here of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (now known as VSS Enterprise) on a recent captive carry flight—with a pilot (Peter Siebold) onboard for the first time.
July 20, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Your Face in Space
With time running short for the space shuttle, NASA has come up with a way for the masses to journey with astronauts on the vehicle's two remaining voyages. Granted, it’s still impossible to actually hitch a ride to orbit, but you can upload and send a picture of yourself into space through NASA...
June 22, 2010 |
By Mary McKillop
Behold Excalibur
Among the more intriguing commercial space vehicles on the drawing board is Excalibur Almaz, whose backers propose to use leftover vehicles built for a Soviet military space station program that died aborning in the 1970s. The principals in the company include Art Dula, an old hand in the field of ...
May 06, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
"Space Tourists" at Sundance
Christian Frei's film "Space Tourists" makes its North American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next week. Frei, whose documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002, followed Anousheh Ansari's visit to the space station in 2006 (she shot much of...
January 12, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Take (Spaceship)Two
More than five years ago Burt Rutan made history with SpaceShipOne, the first civilian- built vehicle to reach space. That rocketplane hangs in the Milestones of Flight gallery in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., alongside Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, Yeager'...
December 07, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Walk This Way
24,000 feet over the Atlantic, east of Long Island, aboard G-Force One, Boeing 727-200 (likely the only 727 spiffed up with winglets). 30 souls on board.“First parabola. Mars gravity, one-third of Earth’s gravity. Try some push-ups.”Oh, piffle. This is nothing “Second parabola. Lunar gravity, one-...
October 06, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
Send up the clowns
Okay, that was one of the strangest sendoffs in launch history. Not only did space tourist and Cirque Du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté keep putting on his red clown nose, the whole crew periodically broke into the cheesy pop song "Mammy Blue" as they were getting ready to board their Soyuz rocket f...
September 30, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
A&S Interview: Esther Dyson
Handicapping the space tourism market.
September 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
A Marriage Made in Microgravity
In the March 2008 issue, we published "High Fashion," which chronicled the state of the art in orbital couture, including "a dress that looked like a giant upside-down shredded coffee filter." Last Saturday, high over Florida, bride Erin Finnegan, wearing Eri Matsui's zero-G wedding gown, exchange...
June 22, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
Now my beach trip looks lame
Am I the only one vacationing on the ground this year?This guy is traveling to the space station on what he calls a "Poetic Social Mission." He's the Canadian billionaire who started Cirque du Soleil.These two are getting married on one of Zero-G's weightless flights. Here's their website. They're ...
June 04, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Two-Timer
Where do you take your next vacation after you’ve been to space? If you’re billionaire Charles Simonyi, you go back.
February 19, 2009 |
By Irene Klotz
A&S Interview: Farouk El-Baz
A veteran space scientist discusses the challenges of the 21st Century.
November 2008 |
By Elizabeth Howell
