The current debate in Britain over whether the government should support "manned space flight" will unfortunately not likely result in benefits for the public…because the terms being used hide the most important issue.

by Dr. Patrick Collins

By Dr. Patrick Collins

by Dr. Patrick Collins

By Dr. Patrick Collins

Maxwell Hunter, one of the America's most experienced rocket designers, died on November 10 at the age of 79, joining the sadly long list of people who should have been able to visit space for themselves.

Now that the previously suppressed Nasa report "General Public Space Travel and Tourism" is available on the Nasa web site, it bears looking at. Go to www.nasa.gov and type the words 'space tourism' into the search box. You may get more than you were expecting.

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.