The Space Frontier Foundation, which has been pressing eloquently for better and more commercially-targeted efforts to develop space, recognises space tourism as one of the activities that could play a major role in generating the financial support needed to develop space. At this year's 7th Annual Conference, Tom Rogers, President of the Space Transportation Association in Washington DC (among his various hats) chaired a panel on Space Adventure Tourism during the afternoon of Saturday October 10th at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, L.A. airport.

Under the headline "Vacations in Orbit" journalist Jeffrey Kluger subtitled Time magazine's first article on the recent activities aimed at realising space tourism "Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin has flown in space twice. Now he's hoping to send you there too."

The Space Tourism Society hosts the Space Fair 98 at the Queen Mary

In a recent piece entitled "Skeptics put Glenn, NASA under the microscope" about John Glenn's scheduled flight on the space shuttle, CNN quoted several medical researchers as saying that although Glenn is 77 his flight cannot be justified by medical research into aging. (Among other things, a single case is not statistically useful, and there is little data on his earlier short flight.) Politics and PR seem to be the real reasons behind the plan.

Space Tourism was discussed in two places in the May 25 issue of Space News, both positive and negative views being expressed.

Richard Branson, Founder and Chairman of Virgin Atlantic Airways, spoke on the Discovery Channel on May 11 about his plans to offer space trips to the public, which he has mentioned before. "Never has the idea of space travel been more popular and most of us dream that we might just see the Earth from space during our lifetime. The exciting thing about technological development is that it can rapidly make the seemingly impossible become reality and nowhere is that more true than transport."

The long awaited NASA-Space Transportation Association Space Travel