Usually no means no, but not to the folks building Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport currently in development and earmarked for space tourism. In fact, Steve Landeene, executive director of the New Mexico Space Authority (NMSA), viewed the loss of a tax increase referendum in Otero County, New Mexico, that would support Spaceport America as little more than a temporary setback.

According to an article in The China Post Roskosmos chairman Anatoly Perminov says Russia will be halting their space tourism programme after 2010. Because of the expansion of the International Space Station ( ISS), the seats available for tourists will go to permanent crew.

by Carol Pinchefsky

According to a BBC article Daisuke Enomoto, the Japanese businessman who had planned to travel to the International Space Station, has failed his medical test.

After more than a year, it seems fair to promote Nasa administrator Goldin's unkept promise to make the path-breaking report "General Public Space Travel and Tourism" (NP-1998-03-11-MSFC) available on Nasa's web-site to a broken promise.

On October 27 the British government published its reply to the recent tenth Report of its Select Committee on Trade and Industry which had recommended an independent review of launch vehicle investment policy, including the issue of passenger travel. This was the first time that any country's space policy has been challenged on this issue at such a high politicial level - and the Blair government's response illustrates well the bitter resistance of the existing 'space industry' to long-overdue change - because it totally ignores the central economic issue raised by the Select Committee!

Mr Goldin has yet to keep the promise he made before a crowded session of the Space Frontier Foundation Conference on September 24 - that he would put the historic NASA/STA report 'General Public Space Travel and Tourism' on space tourism on the NASA website.

In a Mobile, Alabama Register editorial titled poorly, "Mars failures may have influenced," are the seeds of discontent that Americans feel towards a spectator "space program."