The space tourism thread

These guys are going to win the X-Prize

Since development is well under way on a number of fronts. This article provides a general capsule -- here's the rundown (with some links) as to who is doing what:

*The biggest name is Virgin Galactic, a space tourism firm founded by British billionaire tycoon Richard Branson. Branson has partnered with Burt Rutan, whose SpaceShipOne in 2004 became the first private manned craft to reach space, to build a fleet of suborbital commercial spaceships called SpaceShipTwo.

SpaceShipTwo is about the size of a corporate Gulfstream jet that can hold six tourists and two crew members. Like SpaceShipOne, it will be powered by a hybrid rocket motor and use a "feathering" technique to glide back to Earth.

The design of SpaceShipTwo is complete and construction is slated for this summer with test flights scheduled for late next year. The project's $100 million first phase is financed by Branson's Virgin Group, said Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn.

Virgin Galactic plans to fly the first passengers for $200,000 apiece by late 2008 or early 2009, with the first leaving from California's Mojave Desert and later flights from a proposed spaceport in New Mexico. The maiden flight would carry Branson and Rutan, among others, Whitehorn said.

"This is a project not without risk," Whitehorn said recently. "It's our goal to be the first ones to do it safely."

*Oklahoma-based Rocketplane Kistler is one of Virgin Galactic's biggest competitors. Rocketplane Kistler, whose main investor is American businessman George French, hopes to start test flights next January and fly commercially by next summer. French owns several businesses including a space education company in Wisconsin.

The company is building a souped-up, 42-foot-long suborbital Lear jet that can seat three passengers and a pilot. Unlike SpaceShipTwo, which would piggyback atop a mothership to a certain height, the Rocketplane XP would take off and land like an airplane using turbojets and rockets.

"It's the beginning of a whole new era of commercial space travel. Someone's got to do it and we want to be the first," said vice president John Herrington, a former NASA astronaut who will perform the suborbital test flights.

*Space Adventures, a Virginia-based space travel agency best known for brokering three tourists to the international space station, is the latest entrant.

Last month, Space Adventures announced a partnership with members of the Ansari family ? the major funders of the $10 million X Prize won by SpaceShipOne ? to develop Russian-designed suborbital rockets that would launch from a proposed spaceport in the United Arab Emirates by 2008.

Space tourism companies hope wary investors will provide financial backing once they can establish a safety record and prove there is sufficient demand.

"It's changed from being a giggle factor to being heralded as a new business," said Geoff Sheerin, president and chief executive of Canada-based PlanetSpace. Sheerin also founded Canadian Arrow, a private rocket company that unsuccessfully competed for the X Prize in 2004.

*PlanetSpace, backed by American businessman Chirinjeev Kathuria, is building a 54-foot-long, three-seat suborbital rocket that would launch from somewhere in the Great Lakes region and re-enter Earth by splashing into the water. It hopes to fly 2,000 passengers in the first five years, beginning in 2008.

Speaking of the Ansaris and the X-Prize, their next step is the annual X-Prize Cup, set to start in October of this year.