Space Tourism: Fact or Fiction?

Space tourist Gregory Olsen and the twelfth ISS crew lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad inside their Soyuz TMA-7 at about 11:55 p.m. EDT on October 1. Olsen, who paid $20 million to be a "spaceflight participant" as he calls it, joins an elite group of space tourists: Dennis Tito was the first paying passenger ($20 million) in April 2001 and Mark Shuttleworth was the second ($20 million) in April 2002.

Space tourism has indeed arrived and is not going anywhere but up. In an article published by Aviation Week in 2000, Norman Augustine, ex-CEO of Lockhead Martin, predicted that space tourism would become the main space activity. In 1997 the US "National Leisure Travel Monitor" survey included questions on space tourism for the first time. Of 1,500 Americans surveyed, 42% said they'd be interested in flying in a space cruise vessel, and would be willing to spend on average $10,800 for the trip.

For the industry to succeed, however, private enterprise will need to take the reigns from Russia and turn space tourism into a corporate affair rather than a government program. Unfortunately, the laws governing space travel and the use of outer space were legislated through international treaties in the 60