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.)

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.

President Bush has chosen Sean O'Keefe to be the next Nasa administrator; he’s expected to start formally early in the new year after the final Senate ratification. O’Keefe is currently Deputy Director of the US government's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Earlier in 2001 he was responsible for denying Nasa the extra $5 billion that it requested (on top of a long series of earlier budget over-runs) toward the International Space Station ( ISS). A professional public sector manager, O’Keefe has said of the project “...technical excellence at any cost is not an acceptable approach....”

By Patrick Collins

Maxwell Hunter, one of the America's most experienced rocket designers, died on November 10 at the age of 79, joining the sadly long list of people who should have been able to visit space for themselves.

The Presidential Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry was established by President Bush to make recommendations to solve a range of problems facing the industry. These problems, from overspending to failed projects, have arose partly from its decline since the end of the cold war and partly from stagnation at Nasa.

Now that the previously suppressed Nasa report "General Public Space Travel and Tourism" is available on the Nasa web site, it bears looking at. Go to www.nasa.gov and type the words 'space tourism' into the search box. You may get more than you were expecting.

The very positive report on the feasibility of space tourism published by Nasa in March 1998 is now available via Nasa's web-site. Typing 'space tourism' into the search form brings it up as the 3rd reference, dated 25 July, 2001. This follows three and a half years during which Nasa administrator Goldin prevented it being publicly accessible.