April 17-19, 1998

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.

The "Superphoenix" power plant, a 1240 MW sodium-cooled "fast breeder" nuclear reactor near Lyons in France, is to be closed after a very expensive and unsuccessful life. Construction started in December 1974; it operated at full power for the first time in December 1986; and since then it operated for only six months in total, being used finally for research.

An article in Space News by Brenda Forman, a US aerospace consultant, criticized what she called "hype factories" for "pumping out rosy space tourism packages and splashy public announcements." She did so because "...it is not possible to make an honest offer of a space tourism package."

By the year 2000, 20 nations will be operating their own remote-sensing spacecraft - including Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand - according to a report due to be published later this year by the Aerospace Corporation and Euroconsult. As a result, the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) is trying to rationalize these systems and reduce overlap.

On October 14 Brigadier-General "Chuck" Yeager flew through Mach 1 in an F-15 to mark the 50th anniversary of when he first broke the sound barrier back in 1947. His achievement has been called "... the most significant aerospace achievement between the Wright brothers and the landing on the Moon".

The US singer John Denver died in a crash in his own airplane on October 12. Famous world-wide for such notable songs as "Take me home, country road" John Denver also has a place in the history of space tourism.

Q: The St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation has announced that 10 teams have registered to compete in the first private race to space. Could you shed some light on your plan to participate?

A: This [race] is extremely important and interesting, because I think it can [lead to] flight out of the atmosphere--just what the barnstormers opened up to flight in the atmosphere. It won't be done by NASA. And it won't be done by governments, and it won't be done by industry. It will be done by the barnstormers of space. That's what will let the common man fly out of the atmosphere. I think even suborbital flights--where you have 3 to 5 minutes of weightlessness--will be so much fun that it will be a profit-making tourism business. I have structured a plan, and a preliminary design, and a unique way at addressing the factors that make rockets dangerous, and eliminating those dangers. And if those guys put that money in the bank for the prize-winners to get, I'm going to go after it. Sure, why not?