Attending any of the several space conferences is like standing atop an apex of time. Face this way, and you can look back at where we were, and what has happened since the last time we looked. Take a quarter turn, see and hear where we are now and the people making news. Take another quarter turn, and you are facing the future—what is yet to be done, who is going to do it, and how.

Dr. Simonyi is currently on his second trip to space, which is the seventh civilian trip brokered by US company Space Adventures. However, it will be the last for civilian space explorers for the foreseeable future. Due to expansion of the International Space Station ( ISS) crew from three to six starting in April, there will be no extra seats aboard the Soyuz capsules for non-professional space travelers.

In a hastily arranged teleconference on Friday, 3 April 2009, Space Adventures president and CEO Eric Anderson laid out some new developments for the company, the only one in the world that has arranged for private citizens to travel to the International Space Station, starting with Dennis Tito in 2001.

“The second time around” usually refers to marriages, love affairs, and attempts to finish what one started.

The first Teacher in Space program began in 1984, with teachers Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan chosen from 11,000 applicants as the first to fly. Unfortunately for all concerned, McAuliffe lost her life with other six astronauts when the space shuttle Challenger blew up 74 seconds into its flight. NASA shelved the program, and for the next twenty years no teacher/educator has made it across the threshold of the next frontier until Barbara Morgan finally flew in 2007.

US President Obama’s budget containing some hopeful directions for the space program…we think. Nestled within the thousand-page document is an increase in NASA’s budget: US$18.7 billion for 2010, which is US$2.4 billion more than the total for 2008; the House of Representatives also passed a bill on February 25, 2009, increasing the budget by US$360 million to the human space exploration budget for 2009.

Commercial space tourism got off to a good start for 2009 with the New Year’s Day announcement by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson that Virgin Galactic has signed a 20-year lease agreement with the state of New Mexico.

WhiteKnightTwo, the twin fuselage carrier for the sub-orbital vehicle SpaceShipTwo, took off for its maiden flight 21 December 2008 from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, CA. WhiteKnightTwo, or “WK2,” flew for an hour.

This week the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved Spaceport America’s environmental impact statement, and even more important, the launch site operator’s license. These two steps are needed to turn the temporary launch facility into the United State’s first spaceport specifically designed for the space tourism industry.

Last month, the Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) submitted a white paper titled “Space Solar Power ( SSP)—A Solution for Energy Independence & Climate Change” to the Obama-Biden Transition Project, which was published by the Obama transition team.