A surprising number of "special reports" on the 21st century published in newspapers and magazines fail even to mention the possibility of space tourism - which shows just how blind they are. That's because the growth of space tourism is going to be a "core change" in human society through the 21st century, as the spread of air travel world-wide was a core change of 20th century society. (It would be an interesting project for a student (perhaps studying the history of technology?) to survey and record how inaccurate these turn-of-the-century articles were.)

A short article entitled, "Human Mars mission not a priority, Clinton says" (_Space News_, August 2, p 2) reports that on July 21, 1999, the US President told a press conference "...the benefits to us here on Earth of continued advances in space..." would capture the imagination of the American people more than going to Mars. This reflects what public opinion polls show and is perhaps to be expected from a President who became famous for his campaign slogan, "It's the economy, stupid".

"October Sky" is a delightful film based on the autobiographical book "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickham Jr, which tells of his inspiration as a teenager by the launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957. As a result he decided he wanted to build rockets, although his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a coal-miner. Encouraged by his school-teacher and his mother, Homer began building model rockets with some friends, and through persistence they ultimately won a national science competition - and scholarships that allowed them to escape from coal-mining. (Homer himself ended up working for NASA, from where he recently retired.)

The November/December 1998 issue of "STA Spacetrans", the newsletter of the Space Transportation Association, describes the first time that a NASA Administrator spoke out formally and positively in public about space tourism.

Buzz Aldrin, space tourism's most famous supporter, appeared with David Letterman "the most powerful man in American broadcasting" on November 3. His invitation was triggered in part by the orbital trip being taken by the 77-year-old John Glenn.

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."

Under the dramatic headline "Allegre Blasts Station, ESA Management" Space News (June 22-28) reported on some blunt comments by the French Space Minister, Claude Allegre. While complaining about a long list of things (including ESA, the European Commission, Britain, etc) he explained why the French government would not support crewed space activities: