Space Tourism – the dream approaches reality
1 July 2009 – Mankind’s dream to
travel in Space is closer than ever to being realised, according to
prominent members of the burgeoning Space Tourism industry.
At the Royal Aeronautical
Society’s Space Tourism conference, sponsored by VEGA, on 30 June,
presentations from companies such as Space Adventures and Virgin
Galactic suggested that Space travel would be opened up from the
wealthy select few, to the masses, as a result of the dedication
and endeavours to develop safe, low-cost, low emission engines.
The Space Tourism conference featured Tom
Shelley, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Space Adventures,
who showed private Space tourists engaging with astronauts on the
International Space Station. Will Whitehorn, President, Virgin
Galactic, then showed footage of WhiteKnightTwo’s maiden flight and
a blueprint of their first Spaceport in New Mexico, while XCor
Aerospace and EADS Astrium talked about their respective plans for
entry into the Space Tourism market.
John Auburn, VEGA’s Business
Director, Aerospace, said: “VEGA sponsored the Space Tourism
conference for the second time in the belief that ‘New Space’
technologies will be a future catalyst for cheaper access to Space,
and will help develop new technologies for use in commercial and
institutional programmes. This was evident as presenters advised
that their launch vehicles could be used to launch small satellites
into orbit. Currently, small satellites can wait years for a
suitable launch to be available. However, with ‘New Space’
programmes, small satellite launches could be organised within
days.”
Dr John Loizou, Head of Managed
Services at VEGA, chaired the Space Tourism conference and
facilitated questions from the 100-plus delegates.
VEGA has worked on several
projects supporting Human Spaceflight programmes including
developing the astronauts training package at the European
Astronaut Centre in Cologne, and working on the Automated Transfer
Vehicle that provides the International Space Station with
supplies.
Further information
For further information, please
contact Karen Rogers on karen.rogers@vega.co.uk.