Peter Wainwright, one of the two founders of Space Future, has received an Orbit Award, given by Space Tourism Society.

Space travel holds some unanswered questions for observant Muslims, but the most important is "which way is Mecca?" To answer that, Malaysia's National Space Agency held a conference in late April.

Arlington, Va. – February 16, 2006 -- Space Adventures, Ltd., the world’s leading space experiences company, announnced today a contract with Prodea, a private investment firm founded by the Ansari family, and a separate contract with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA), to develop a fleet of suborbital spaceflight vehicles for commercial use globally. This joint venture will fully develop and provide a set of turnkey operational space tourism systems that include the delivery of several suborbital launch vehicles to multiple global locations.

Arlington, Va. – February 17, 2006 -- Space Adventures, Ltd., the world’s leading space experiences company, announced today its plans to develop a commercial spaceport in Ras Al-Khaimah (the UAE), with plans to expand globally. Other potential spaceport locations include Asia, specifically Singapore, and North America. The total estimated cost of the glob! al spaceport development project is at least $265 million (USD) and will be funded by various parties, along with shared investments by Space Adventures and the government of Ras Al-Khaimah. The company, which organized orbital flights for all of the world's private space explorers, also announces that His Highness Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi of Ras Al-Khaimah, along with the UAE Department of Civilian Aviation, have granted clearance to operate suborbital spaceflights in their air space.

by G.B. Leatherwood

An article on CNN.com talks about the imminent future of space tourism. Author Leonard David, moonlighting from Space.com, writes that Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and Will Whitehorn of Virgin Galactic testified to the House Subcommittee on Space as to their plans: a fleet of suborbital vehicles.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — AERA Corporation, a leading luxury commercial space travel provider, announced today that it has signed a “Commercial Space Operations Support Agreement” with the United States Air Force (USAF). The agreement, effective for, and renewable after five years, establishes the ground-rules that will apply to AERA’s proposed access to launch facilities and launch support services at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

by G.B. Leatherwood

Space Future has expanded to a new website: Space Future Japan. On the Web at http://www.spacefuturejapan.com/ or http://www.uchumirai.com/, Space Future Japan will provide unique content in the Japanese language, aimed at the over 127 million people who live in Japan. (‘Uchumirai’ is ‘Space Future’ in Japanese).

Two more friends and colleagues of Space Future who attended the first flight to space by SpaceShipOne kindly sent us their thoughts on that great event.