[Moonbase-discuss] Space Tourism Club: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

[Randall Clague]

On Wed, 12 Jun 2002 02:07:51 -0700, Samuel Coniglio
<spaceman@mindspring.com> wrote:

>The Yuri's Night event in San Francisco helped stir a number of great=20
>discussions.  The most common one of them was this:
>
>"What can I do to get to outer space? "
>
>Well, if you are not a NASA astronaut or a multi-millionaire, it=20
>seems you are out of luck.

I'm sorry, Sam, I have to disagree - but you knew I would.  :-)

>Fortunately, there are a series of=20
>movements afoot to bring public space travel closer to a reality.

There are also organizations - some companies, some non-profits, some
somewhere in between - that are actively pursuing the goal of bring
affordable space access to the people.  Among them are:

XCOR Aerospace - www.xcor.com - a rocket engine startup company

Armadillo Aerospace - www.armadilloaerospace.com - a hobbyist group
organized as a startup company

JP Aerospace - www.jpaerospace.com - formerly hobbyists, now semi-pro

Experimental Rocket Propulsion Society - www.erps.org - non-profit
amateurs based in San Jose

Government won't get us out there, so we have to do it ourselves.
There's no one solution.  Sam's Space Tourism Club is one approach;
the above organizations offer another, complementary approach.

Disclaimer: I'm the VP of ERPS, so I may be a bit biased.  :-)

-R

--
"Sutton is the beginning of wisdom -
but only the beginning."
                     -- Jeff Greason