Kistler Aerospace is the recipient of an $8 million investment by the Industrial Bank of Taiwan, one of seven banks approved by the Taiwanese finance ministry to invest a total of $50 million in a move to develop advanced space technology generally.

Over the past few weeks, two self-made billionaire businessmen have established companies with the stated objective of playing roles in the commercial space tourism industry that is becoming increasingly widely recognised as the true future of space activities.

Kevin Bollinger is on a mission. He wants to fly into space. And he is doing it step by step with the San Jose based Experimental Rocket Propulsion Society, known affectionately as ERPS. If ERPS succeeds, you and I could one day buy a ticket on a low cost and safe reusable spaceship.

NASA has published a draft plan for using the International Space Station (ISS) "...to establish the foundation for a market-place... for space products and services in low-Earth orbit, where both demand and supply are dominated by the private sector."

Good news! It seems that the Australians are not only matching the

The Report of the AIAA/ CEAS/ CASI Workshop on International Cooperation in Space held in Banff Canada in January 1998 has been published, and it includes strong support for the creation of a space tourism industry.

The Launch Cost Reduction Bill, a new Senate bill that would allow NASA to provide loan guarantees of up to $400 million to help chosen companies raise funding for new launch vehicle development, has become the focus of a fierce controversy.

In a recent press release, Gateway computers, a major PC maker, announced that they will be the exclusive supliers of computer workstations to Vela Technologies Development, Inc., who is developing the Space Cruiser(R) System (SCS) space tourist vehicle. This is the company working with Zegrahm Space Voyages to offer tourist flights into space.

Aerospace America published an interview with Richard Christiansen, NASA's acting associate administrator of aeronautics and space transportation technology in which he discussed NASA's plans for space access, among other topics.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which was given responsibility for regulating commercial space activities in 1995 (though the funding authority remains different from that of the rest of the FAA) has started a study on how best to merge the monitoring and handling of aircraft traffic with rockets and space vehicles that travel to and from outer space.