In article ,
John Schutkeker wrote:

Joe Strout wrote in news:joe-
:

space tourism is about to take off in a
big way. By the time ISS is completed and the shuttle fleet retired, we
will at least have a suborbital tourism industry.

Why do you say this?

Because the X-Prize will be won this year, almost certainly by
SpaceShipOne, with several other contenders probably acheiving the same
target within the next few years. While Scaled has said they have no
plans to commercialize SS1, I doubt that Paul Allen spent $20M to
develop a new kind of craft just to collect a $10M prize and a big lawn
ornament. And other contenders, such as Armadillo (IIRC), have
explicitly stated that suborbital tourism is their goal.

So, I expect we'll see routine suborbital tourist flights within five
years or so.

If anything, it seems that orbital tourism on the
ISS, was doing much better than sub-orbital tourism, at least until the
Columbia broke up.

Well, yes, because there hasn't been a suborbital tourist craft. Now
there's one going through careful, steady testing (just broke the sound
barrier a couple weeks ago), and others sure to follow.

You gotta give the Russians credit for that one. I
guess there are some advantages to having weak ethics and a desperation for
cash, because they sure led the curve on this idea.

I do give them credit for that, and I don't agree with your "weak
ethics" crack. There's nothing unethical about making a profit in
space. The Russians are doing the right thing; it's the U.S. that's
standing in the way of progress there.

Cheers,
- Joe

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