Space tourism is the recent phenomenon of tourists paying for flights into space. As of 2009, orbital space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport. The price for a flight brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft is US$20–35 million. The space tourists usually sign contracts with third parties to conduct certain research while in orbit. This helps to minimize their own expenses.
Infrastructure for a suborbital space tourism industry is being developed through the construction of spaceports in numerous locations, including California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, Alaska, Wisconsin, Esrange in Sweden as well as the United Arab Emirates. Some use the term "personal spaceflight" as in the case of the Personal Spaceflight Federation.
A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry. For a list of such companies, and the spacecraft they are currently building, see list of space tourism companies.
Early dreams
After early successes in space, much of the public saw intensive space exploration as inevitable. Those aspirations are remembered in science fiction such as Arthur C. Clarke's A Fall of Moondust and also 2001: A Space Odyssey , Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator , Joanna Russ's 1968 novel Picnic on Paradise , and Larry Niven's Known Space stories. Lucian in 2 A.D. in his book True History examines the idea of a crew of men whose ship travels to the Moon during a storm. Jules Verne also took up the theme of lunar visits in his books, From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon . Robert A. Heinlein’s short story The Menace from Earth , published in 1957, was one of the first to incorporate elements of a developed space tourism industry within its framework. During the 1960s and 1970s, it was common belief that space hotels would be launched by 2000. Many futurologists around the middle of the 20th century speculated that the average family of the early 21st century would be able to enjoy a holiday on the Moon. In the 1960s, Pan Am established a waiting list for future flights to the moon, issuing free "First Moon Flights Club" membership cards to those who requested them.
The end of the Space Race, however, signified by the Moon landing, decreased the emphasis placed on space exploration by national governments and therefore led to decreased demands for public funding of manned space flights.
Precursors
The Soviet space program was aggressive in broadening the pool of cosmonauts. The Soviet Intercosmos program also included cosmonauts selected from Warsaw Pact members (from Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania) and later from allies of the USSR (Cuba, Mongolia, Vietnam) and non-aligned countries (India, Syria, Afghanistan). Most of these cosmonauts received full training for their missions and were treated as equals, but especially after the Mir program began, were generally given shorter flights than Soviet cosmonauts. The European Space Agency took advantage of the program as well.
The U.S. space shuttle program included payload specialist positions which were usually filled by representatives of companies or institutions managing a specific payload on that mission. These payload specialists did not receive the same training as professional NASA astronauts and were not employed by NASA. In 1983, Ulf Merbold from ESA and Byron Lichtenberg from MIT (engineer and Air Force fighter pilot) were the first Payload Specialists to fly on the shuttle, becoming the first non-NASA astronauts. In 1984, Charlie Walker became the first non-government astronaut to fly, with his flight paid for by his employer, McDonnell Douglas. NASA was also eager to prove its capability to Congressional sponsors. Senator Jake Garn was flown on the shuttle in 1985, followed by Representative Bill Nelson (now Senator) in 1986. As the shuttle program expanded, the Teacher in Space program was developed as a way to expand publicity and educational opportunities for NASA. Christa McAuliffe would have been the first Teacher in Space, but was killed in the Challenger disaster and the program was canceled. During the same period a Journalist in Space program was frequently discussed, with individuals such as Walter Cronkite and Miles O'Brien considered front-runners, but no formal program was ever developed. McAuliffe's backup in the Teacher in Space Program, Barbara Morgan, eventually got hired in 1998 as a professional astronaut and flew on STS-118 as a mission specialist where she spoke to many students as an educator during the trip.
With the realities of the post-Perestroika economy in Russia, its space industry was especially starved for cash. The Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) offered to pay for one of its reporters to fly on a mission. For $28 million, Toyohiro Akiyama was flown in 1990 to Mir with the eighth crew and returned a week later with the seventh crew. Akiyama gave a daily TV broadcast from orbit and also performed scientific experiments for Russian and Japanese companies. However, since the cost of the flight was paid by his employer, Akiyama could be considered a business traveler rather than a tourist.
In 1991, British chemist Helen Sharman was selected from a pool of public applicants to be the first Briton in space. As the United Kingdom had no human space program, the arrangement was by a consortium of private companies who contracted with the Russian space program. Sharman was also in a sense a private space traveler, but she was a working cosmonaut with a full training regimen.
Orbital space tourism
Main article: Spaceflight participantAt the end of the 1990s, MirCorp, a private venture by then in charge of the space station, began seeking potential space tourists to visit Mir in order to offset some of its maintenance costs. Dennis Tito, an American businessman and former JPL scientist, became their first candidate. When the decision to de-orbit Mir was made, Tito managed to switch his trip to the International Space Station through a deal between MirCorp and U.S.-based Space Adventures, Ltd., despite strong opposition from senior figures at NASA. Space Adventures remains the only company to have sent paying passengers to space.
In conjunction with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation and Rocket and Space Corporation (Energia), Space Adventures facilitated the flights for all of the world's first private space explorers. The first three participants paid in excess of $20 million (USD) each for their 10-day visit to the ISS.
On April 28, 2001, Dennis Tito became the first "fee-paying" space tourist when he visited the International Space Station (ISS) for seven days. He was followed in 2002 by South African computer millionaire Mark Shuttleworth. The third was Gregory Olsen in 2005, who was trained as a scientist and whose company produced specialist high-sensitivity cameras. Olsen planned to use his time on the ISS to conduct a number of experiments, in part to test his company's products. Olsen had planned an earlier flight, but had to cancel for health reasons.
After the Columbia disaster, space tourism on the Russian Soyuz program was temporarily put on hold, because Soyuz vehicles became the only available transport to the ISS. However, in 2006, space tourism was resumed. On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian American (Soyuz TMA-9), became the fourth space tourist (she prefers spaceflight participant). On April 7, 2007, Charles Simonyi, an American billionaire of Hungarian descent, joined their ranks (Soyuz TMA-10).
In 2003, NASA and the Russian Space Agency agreed to use the term 'Spaceflight Participant' to distinguish those space travelers from astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies. Tito, Shuttleworth, Olsen, Ansari, and Simonyi were designated as such during their respective space flights. NASA also lists Christa McAuliffe as a "Space Flight Participant" (although she did not pay a fee), apparently due to her non-technical duties aboard the STS-51-L flight.
List of flown space tourists
Seven of the space tourists flew to and from the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft through the space tourism company, Space Adventures:
Note that Senator Jake Garn, Representative Bill Nelson and teacher Christa McAuliffe can be considered to have flown as "tourists" on the shuttle, though these three were not charged any fare.
Suborbital flights
More affordable suborbital space tourism is viewed as a money-making proposition by several other companies, including Space Adventures, Virgin Galactic, Starchaser, Blue Origin, Armadillo Aerospace, XCOR Aerospace, Rocketplane Limited, the European "Project Enterprise", and others. Most are proposing vehicles that make suborbital flights peaking at an altitude of 100-160 kilometres. Passengers would experience three to six minutes of weightlessness, a view of a twinkle-free starfield, and a vista of the curved Earth below. Projected costs are expected to be about $200,000 per passenger.
As of November 2007 Virgin Galactic had pre-sold nearly 200 seats for their suborbital space tourism flights, according to the company
index page for all Hobby Master Military aircraft and accessories
Hobby Master Collector.com is dedicated to the promotion of the fine die-cast models produced by Hobby Master. You'll find news, reviews, updates, pictures and more all on one site
All About Fun Hobbies and Games Home page. Redcat Racing
All About Fun Hobbies and Games largest redcat traxxas cen himoto hpi team associated estes models hobby shop dealer in texas
About.com Hobbies & Games
Are you looking for a new hobby or searching for information about a current one? ... ©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
Questions about List All Hobbies - Ask.com
Top questions and answers about List-All-Hobbies. Find 1 questions and answers about List-All-Hobbies at Ask.com Read more.
All Hobbies & projects Groups | ThirdAge
Sign-up for our free ThirdAge newsletters to receive the latest articles, advice tips and more!
Hobbies & Interests - Crafts, Gardening & Decorating | Reader's Digest
See all... Hobbies & Interests; Craft Projects; Decorating; Gardening; Genealogy ... Also, read The All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening for in-depth organic planting ...
All Hobbies
Hobby Shop, Model Cars | Chaffee, NY
Visit our hobby shop in Chaffee, New York, for an excellent selection of model cars and trucks.
All-Japan Plamodel Hobby Show 2009 Preview
This Oct. 8-11 event at Makuhari Messe in Chiba will focus on hobby products being released this fall and winter. Here's an advance look at some of the new items debuting there ...
Hobbies and Crafts
Crafts and hobbies have always been a wonderful way to express ourselves and pass the time. If you're looking for a new way to passtime consider some of the crafts and hobbies ...