Vaughn Cordele, the Civilian Astronaut Corps Pilot, appeared on Thursday's "Late Nite with David Letterman" show. He was dressed in an all black military-style flight suit and was wearing CAC logos. He was slightly nervous, but he confidently talked about himself and the rocket.

Reuters and Wired Magazine are reporting that the Japanese distributor of Pepsi, Suntory Ltd., plans to offer it's customers the chance to fly in space as part of a promotional campaign. Five winners will receive the opportunity to fly into space in 2001 via Zegrahm Space Voyages, a U.S. space travel agency.

The final report of a study of General Public Space Travel and Tourism performed cooperatively by NASA and the Space Transportation Association (STA) under a Space Act Agreement dated 12th September, 1995 was released at a press conference on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. on March 25.

Recently Alcestis "Cooky" Oberg wrote a great opinion editorial piece on space tourism and commercial space which got national visibility in USA Today newspaper (read by many business travelers). She allowed Keith Cowing at NASA Watch to reprint the article on his web site:

The Final Report of the joint study on General Public Space Travel and Tourism released March 25 by NASA and the Space Transportation Association (STA) concluded that "Our national space policy should be examined with an eye to toward actively encouraging the creation of a large general public space travel and tourism business." However, one of the problems which the Report specifically discusses is that the concept of "space tourism" is not taken seriously by many technical experts who might be expected to support it:

FYI,

Large quantities of water ice were discovered near the surface of the south lunar pole by the US Department of Defence's satellite "Clementine" in 1996. At a press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on March 5 it was announced that data from NASA's Lunar Prospector satellite launched in January has confirmed that discovery and indicates the presence of many millions of tons of ice, and possibly as much as a billion tons, at both lunar poles.

After a reception starting at 8.00 am, a press conference will be held at 9.00 am on Wednesday March 25th on Capitol Hill at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room B-354 (corner of Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street, SW) Washington D.C. to announce the release of the final report of the joint study by STA and NASA on General Public Space Travel and Tourism.

Hon John Moore MP, Minister for Industry, Science and Tourism

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article about the pilot for Advent Launch Services. Vaughn Cordle holds 44 world aviation records, all from passenger planes. He wants to be the first civilian pilot to fly into space. Advent's launch vehicle will be named the Mayflower II.