A new grant has been provided by the Japanese Ministry of Education to enable the team of Professor Hideo Matsuoka, Professor Makoto Nagatomo and Dr Patrick Collins to continue their field research selecting rectenna sites for the " SPS 2000" Project in equatorial countries. The SPS 2000 satellite is being planned to transmit 10 MW of solar-generated microwave energy from an altitude of 1100 km above the equator to a number of rectennas within +/- 3 degrees latitude.

An article in Space News by Brenda Forman, a US aerospace consultant, criticized what she called "hype factories" for "pumping out rosy space tourism packages and splashy public announcements." She did so because "...it is not possible to make an honest offer of a space tourism package."

By the year 2000, 20 nations will be operating their own remote-sensing spacecraft - including Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand - according to a report due to be published later this year by the Aerospace Corporation and Euroconsult. As a result, the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) is trying to rationalize these systems and reduce overlap.

The future of mankind's space activities is in business, not government, predict the attendees of this year's conference. Hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation, the sixth annual gathering took place in Los Angeles from November 7-9, 1997.

Space News Oct 6-12 carried a front page story about privatizing space shuttle operations: "Shuttle haggling begins: NASA, company see different paths to privatization"

At the general assembly of the World Tourism Organization held in Istanbul in late October, a report was presented called "Tourism 2020 Vision" containing forecasts about the future of international tourism until 2020. Overall they foresee continuing rapid growth - today's 600 million international passengers growing to 1,600 million, and international tourism revenues growing from $423 billion in 1996 to $2 trillion in 2020.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The readers write-in column "Tell Yui" ("Yui and readers' talking club") in the November issue of the monthly Japanese magazine "New Type" carried readers' answers to the question: "What would you like to do once before you die?"

On October 14 Brigadier-General "Chuck" Yeager flew through Mach 1 in an F-15 to mark the 50th anniversary of when he first broke the sound barrier back in 1947. His achievement has been called "... the most significant aerospace achievement between the Wright brothers and the landing on the Moon".