Space Adventures announced that American Dr. Greg Olsen, scientist and founder of CEO of Sensors Unlimited, Inc., will become the third private space explorer. Following in the footsteps of Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth, Dr. Olsen hopes to inspire children to learn science and engineering with his work on the International Space Station ( ISS). His flight represents the first of the four exclusive flight opportunities that Space Adventures acquired in 2003 through their contract with the Russian Space Agency and RSC Energia.

This week is turning out to be very newsworthy for the space tourism industry. First, the world's second paying space passenger is set to fly on Thursday, April 25. Mark Shuttleworth, a South African dotcom multi-millionaire, is ready for launch on a Vostok rocket from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakstan. Colonel Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko is the commander of the Taxi-3 mission, also was a member of the first crew on the International Space Station Expedition-1 mission. Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Vittori, from Rome, Italy, completes the team. He has over 2000 hours experience in over 40 different aircraft. Mark Shuttleworth has excellent companions for his trip to the ISS. Keep posted at the First African in Space website:

At the first Congressional hearing on space tourism at the House subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, the room was packed with reporters, space activists, and a large number of young people.

Over 100 people from around the world gathered at the Space Transportation Association's "Going Public" Space Tourism conference in Washington, D.C. to learn more about the issues inhibiting space tourism from becoming a viable endeavor.

World famous science fiction author and visionary Arthur C. Clarke wrote in the February 1, 1999 issue of Space News that it's time to think seriously about building hotels in orbit.