Energiya, a space technology company, and Gold & Appel, a holdings firm, recently established a joint venture, MirCorp, whose purpose is to commercialise the orbiting space station, Mir.

After many months of 'on-again, off-again' rumours that the MIR space station could be maintained in orbit as a private business facility if some tens of millions of dollars of new investment could be raised, it appears that this is about to happen.

The Space Transportation Association based in Washington DC is one of the organisations putting most effort into changing official attitudes to space tourism, having been responsible for such historic steps as initiating and realising the historic NASA/STA joint study: General Public Space Travel and Tourism and holding the first space tourism conference in the USA (see below).

Dole Food Products Inc, the world's largest fresh fruit company, is offering tickets for a sub-orbital space flight to winners of a sweep-stake it is organising.

The 2nd International Symposium on Space Tourism took place in Bremen from April 21-23, organised by Professor Uwe Apel of Bremen Technical University as Chair of the Program Committee, and Hartmut Mueller of Space Tours Gmbh as Chair of the Host Committee. Among the 26 papers presented, several are destined to become recognised as 'classic' papers in the field, establishing an important new element of accepted wisdom among professionals in the field, or creating what will be seen as a milestone in the future.

Over the past few weeks, two self-made billionaire businessmen have established companies with the stated objective of playing roles in the commercial space tourism industry that is becoming increasingly widely recognised as the true future of space activities.

NASA has published a draft plan for using the International Space Station (ISS) "...to establish the foundation for a market-place... for space products and services in low-Earth orbit, where both demand and supply are dominated by the private sector."

The Report of the AIAA/ CEAS/ CASI Workshop on International Cooperation in Space held in Banff Canada in January 1998 has been published, and it includes strong support for the creation of a space tourism industry.

The Launch Cost Reduction Bill, a new Senate bill that would allow NASA to provide loan guarantees of up to $400 million to help chosen companies raise funding for new launch vehicle development, has become the focus of a fierce controversy.

Aerospace America published an interview with Richard Christiansen, NASA's acting associate administrator of aeronautics and space transportation technology in which he discussed NASA's plans for space access, among other topics.