Spaceflight participant Richard Garriot returned to the Kazakhstan steppes on October 24, after spending 12 days in space. Garriott, son of former astronaut Owen Garriott and therefore the first second-generation US astronaut, kept himself occupied during that whole flight. In fact, you may wonder how he had time to sleep.

Jim Benson, 63, founder of SpaceDev, the first publicly traded space company, died October 10, 2008, from a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor, with which he was diagnosed in 2007.

What is the next best thing to going into space? Being next in line for a trip.

Some folks are never satisfied. Not with paddling down the Amazon, tracking gorillas in Rwanda, diving to the Titanic, or hunting for meteorites in the frozen Antarctic.

In sports, coming in second is almost as bad as finishing last. First place wins the gold medal, the blue ribbon, the biggest trophy, and the bottle of champagne. Second place doesn’t.

Orbital spaceflight broker Space Adventures announced that Dr. Charles Simonyi, the fifth paid spaceflight participant, will be returning to the International Space Station, making him their first customer to take a second trip.

On August 13, 1968, at the Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference ( IECEC) in Boulder, Colorado, Dr. Peter Glaser of the US Solar Energy Society presented the idea of collecting solar energy in orbit and delivering it as radio wave energy to receivers on Earth 24/7.

The fourth SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket was launched today, achieving a significant milestone; it's the world's first privately funded TSTO liquid rocket to achieve orbit. Even though the first three launches of the Falcon 1 were not successful, NASA and the US Department of Defense kept faith in the fledgling space company. Today, after many trials and tribulations, that faith has been rewarded.

According to an article in Wired.com, Daisuke Enomoto has filed a lawsuit against Space Adventures.

True to his word that he would issue press releases only when there was something to report, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed that the fourth test of Falcon 1 will take place between 28 September and 1 October 2008 from the Kwajalein Pacific island launch site.