Asian space tourists

It’s quite a long time since I wrote about the global race to set up commercial spaceports for (sub)orbital tourism. It seems that the Singapore Spaceport is still going ahead, although I haven’t heard anything more about it in the local media. The Spaceport’s own web site has only one solitary press release, dated February 20, 2006.

Last time I posted on this topic, it seemed that Singapore would have a competitive advantage through being the only Asian provider of cheap sub-orbital flights, and thus attractive to wannabe-astronauts from all over Asia who didn’t want to go through the hassles of US Immigration. Now, it seems, I was overestimating the deterrent effect of the American border! According to Asia Times, Virgin Galactic are finding a large market in India, and their early flights are already fully booked. It looks as if Virgin Galactic are going to get first-mover advantage, and leverage their brand to capture the affluent sector of the market. How many of these will want to repeat the flight, I wonder? Will they go back to the US to do a repeat launch, or be happy to switch to Singapore? I wonder what the effects for the Singapore Spaceport will be.

Spaceport news

I haven’t written anything about spaceports for a while; news has been a bit thin. Two relevant bits of information have popped up this morning, though:

• The world’s ‘first’ commercial spaceport is moving quickly towards becoming a reality. New Mexico’s legislature has voted to approve it; the new venture is likely to be largely finded by a local sales tax, and the space port should launch its first flight in 2009 or 2010. I say ‘first’ spaceport with some doubt because, although that’s what the article’s headline says, the writer in fact mentions that our own spaceport here in Singapore may go live in 2009 – which as I read it, means it could beat the New Mexico facility to launch.
• On the downside of space travel, flaming space debris passed within five miles of an Airbus jet between Chile and New Zealand. Yikes.

Spaceports are the new black

It’s only a couple of weeks since I wondered what was going on with all these new commercial spaceports popping up all over the place. Today, via Slashdot, I see yet another. This article in USA Today describes the first launch from yet another spaceport on the east coast of the US. This really does seem to be bandwagon-jumping: the rocket was  built with “two stages made from decommissioned Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles and two stages from Pegasus rockets” – not exactly X-craft cutting edge.

Furthermore,  “the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, a state agency, built the commercial launch pad in 1998 on land leased from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to try to help bring jobs to the economically depressed Eastern Shore region. Maryland later joined the venture“.

So there we are – spaceports are the new Disneyland, with the optional added attraction of taking part in your own flaming, meteoric descent from a great height if it turns out the developer was trying to do things on the cheap – which I have a horrible feeling is likely to happen. There just seem to be too many of these places being developed in the US, and I’m very sceptical that there will be enough of a market to keep them all going.

Let me emphasise that I’m only talking about the spaceports  being developed in the US. Singapore’s spaceport is being built by cutting-edge spaceflight developers, I have complete faith that Singapore’s efficiency and project management skills will ensure it’s done right, and it’s still (AFAIK) the only Asian spaceport, meaning that I think there will be enough of a regional market. I definitely think it’s way cool that we’re going to have a spaceport in the Garden City…

Suborbital who? Suborbital you?

This is getting a little crazy. I’ve just seen this Slashdot story: the US state of Ohio is attempting to attract a company to set up a spaceport to send tourists into suborbital space. Apparently there are already five current or planned sites aiming to do the same, in the US alone – not to mention Singapore, which I’ve written about before.

What’s going on? Is there really such a huge demand for suborbital flight? Is this a desperate attempt to attract something that will add value in a flat world? Or am I missing something?

links for 2006-11-03

• Eric Jones – Base Jumping Off Angel Falls Video

• YouTube – “Litmus” Wayne Lynch clip

• BBC Online – Eric Jones – The Man Who Jumped Beneath The Earth – Webchat

  “Life is adventure or nothing at all”

• Mining the final frontier

  (tags: Spaceport Singapore)

• The final frontier: Spaceport Singapore steadies to dock

  (tags: Spaceport Singapore)

• In New Mexico, a modest star trek base – Americas – International Herald Tribune

  (tags: Spaceport USA)

• I, Cringely – The $200 Billion Lunch

  Out of necessity, China has led the way in adopting new internet protocols. Their success is forcing other countries to follow suit. It sheds light on the Great Firewall: all traffic in/out of China needs to go through address mapping.

  (tags: Cringely internet news technology China)

• Creating Passionate Users: Why does engineering/math/science education in the US suck?

  (tags: education learning science teaching)

• Sir Ken Robinson on TED Talks

  (tags: creativity design education film innovation intelligence learning management presentations technology teaching)

More on the Singapore spaceport

I was surprised when I wrote about it before that this was so low-profile and, in local terms, that’s still true. I suppose it’s a work in progress, so there aren’t many press releases going out at the moment.

However, a story appeared today on Slashdot, about Richard Branson unveiling more details about the launch vehicle for Virgin Galactic. If anyone can popularise mass participation in sub-orbital vehicles, it will be Virgin! Anyway, the main article appeared on space.com so, I thought, aha, this will probably have stories on what’s happening in Singapore.

And, indeed, it does. Here’s one that describes the current situation. The spaceport is making progress; the government of Singapore is currently developing a regulatory framework for it. The article offers a good review of the very broad range of activities that will be available in the camp, and relates the project to Singapore’s program to reinvent its tourism profile.

I think we’re going to see a great synergy here between the two spaceport projects. Branson’s Virgin Galactic will undoubtedly have the stronger global profile, and will establish the concept in the world’s imagination. Depending on the price point that eventually emerges once the services actually start operating, I suspect demand will grow rapidly and Singapore will benefit from this interest, as Asian tourists come here for their space trips rather than go to the American desert.

To Singapore – and beyooooond!

I mentioned the otherday that I find the prospect living in Singapore very exciting as this little island becomes a world leader in bioscience and life-extension technologies. I like the idea of these medical techniques becoming common here, before they hit the streets in the rest of the world.

I was reading Wired News earlier  and one article caught my eye: Space Tours for Taikonauts. China, it seems, wants to build up a space tourism industry. No doubt they will, but it seems premature when they have only had two successful space shots – and that in Soyuz-based capsules, which might be OK for millionaire mavericks, but not for mass travel.

Anyway, that got me thinking – didn’t I read something a while back about Singapore developing a spaceport? I didn’t recall hearing anything about it since, so it seems to be very low-key. Still, a quick Google search established that the plan is very much alive and well, and the Singapore space port should be active at Changi in 2009!

• Wikipedia article: Singapore spaceport
• Official site: Welcome to Singapore Spaceport

This is so cool. Advanced bioscience and cheap space travel, in a Garden City with great food and loads of kung fu schools. I realize that this is a highly personal view of an ideal place to live but, you know…..

From Singapore to the moon…

OK, so that’s pushing it a bit, but it seems Singapore is going to have its own spaceport!

I admit, I had to check it wasn’t April 1 today, but it’s in the Independent, not some wacko fringe site, so maybe it’s true… How come I hadn’t heard about this in the Straits Times, Tomorrow, or in any of the Singaporean blogs I read?

Still, it won’t be as if the space shuttles will be blasting off from Changi: the ’spaceships’ will be slung under aircraft and launched while already in the air, and won’t be going in to full orbit.

Also – noting my post a few days ago about Qatar and the UAE snapping at Singapore’s heels – there will be a similar operation setting up in the UAE!

Update: Confirmed on MSNBC. It’s for real…