NASA has announced that Senator John Glenn (D Idaho), the first US citizen to orbit the Earth (in 1962) will fly on board the space shuttle in late 1998. Scepticism has been expressed about claims that this will be useful for research on ageing, and it is acknowledged that his case is exceptional. (There's a long queue of other ex-astronauts who'd like a flight!)

A joint press conference by NASA and the Space Transportation Association (STA) was planned for January 21st at the Press Club, Washington DC, and publicised in the STA Newsletter. However it was cancelled by NASA at the last minute, and a new date has yet to be announced.

On October 24 the US House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to examine the viability of microwave energy from space. They discussed the need to direct NASA to study SPS, since it is not working on this project, despite its promise to provide an economic return on taxpayers' huge investment in space. For a fuller report see http://www.nss.org/alerts/capsules/capsule17.html

An article in December's "Wired" magazine entitled "Reality Check: The Future of Hotels" asked the question: "Might we one day blast off to soak in whirlpool spas in outer space?" It published comments on the idea from three hotel industry professionals.

The Final Report of the joint study carried out since 1995 by NASA and the Space Transportation Association (STA) in Washington DC is due to be published in January, according to Thomas F Rogers, the President of STA.

A new grant has been provided by the Japanese Ministry of Education to enable the team of Professor Hideo Matsuoka, Professor Makoto Nagatomo and Dr Patrick Collins to continue their field research selecting rectenna sites for the " SPS 2000" Project in equatorial countries. The SPS 2000 satellite is being planned to transmit 10 MW of solar-generated microwave energy from an altitude of 1100 km above the equator to a number of rectennas within +/- 3 degrees latitude.

An article in Space News by Brenda Forman, a US aerospace consultant, criticized what she called "hype factories" for "pumping out rosy space tourism packages and splashy public announcements." She did so because "...it is not possible to make an honest offer of a space tourism package."

By the year 2000, 20 nations will be operating their own remote-sensing spacecraft - including Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand - according to a report due to be published later this year by the Aerospace Corporation and Euroconsult. As a result, the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) is trying to rationalize these systems and reduce overlap.

Space News Oct 6-12 carried a front page story about privatizing space shuttle operations: "Shuttle haggling begins: NASA, company see different paths to privatization"

At the general assembly of the World Tourism Organization held in Istanbul in late October, a report was presented called "Tourism 2020 Vision" containing forecasts about the future of international tourism until 2020. Overall they foresee continuing rapid growth - today's 600 million international passengers growing to 1,600 million, and international tourism revenues growing from $423 billion in 1996 to $2 trillion in 2020.