To commemorate the first anniversary of the historic first space tourist flight by Dennis Tito, the Space Tourism Society held its first annual awards presentation ceremony on April 27 at the Santa Monica Community College Concert Theatre, Santa Monica. Featuring a speech and video presentation by Dennis Tito, and speeches by other leading figures in the growing field of space tourism, the evening included the presentation of the 2002 Space Tourism Pioneer "ORBIT" Awards to (in alphabetical order) David Ashford, Bob Citron, Patrick Collins, Peter Diamandis, William Gaubatz, David Gump, Jason Klassi, Chuck Lauer, Tom Rogers (lifetime award) and John Spencer.

AFRICAN IN SPACE

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:

In an illustrated article “Learning to Fly, Strip, and Vomit on a 727”, Penn Jillette gives a wonderfully zany description of the thrill of floating in weightlessness here. (It also describes how, until aviation authorities finally certify companies to offer these services through commercial ticket sales, it’s possible to ‘get round’ regulations by becoming a ‘company employee’, as the author did along with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, among others.)

US television viewers learned about the exciting new world of space tourism on the American Broadcasting Company's (ABC) "World News Tonight," the network's nightly world news broadcast.

A new Russian spaceplane for sub-orbital space tourism

In a short item entitled “Tourism Cost Realities” in Aviation Week and Space Technology (February 4, p 17) Boeing gives some hints about recent work on a space tourism vehicle. Boeing's conclusion is that they could not develop that vehicle on a commercial basis - but the figures they quote actually strongly support the case for funding the production of space tourism vehicles.

On February 21, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) will give their much-sought-after award for 'Americanism' to Dennis Tito, the first person in history to pay his own way to space. In doing this the BSA are reminding Americans of who they are, of what it was about Americans that made the USA the richest country in the world. At their best they are pioneering, entrepreneurial, individual, visionary. The BSA's full citation can be found on the Wilshire company's web-site.

A documentary on space tourism will be appearing on Thursday, January 31, at 9pm EST on the Travel Channel. _Space: The Final Vacation_ promises an out-of-this-world look at the armchair astronaut's most coveted destination.

by Alan Breakstone