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 US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which was given responsibility for regulating commercial space activities in 1995 (though the funding authority remains different from that of the rest of the FAA) has started a study on how best to merge the monitoring and handling of aircraft traffic with rockets and space vehicles that travel to and from outer space.

On May 8 an 8ft (2.4m) long model of Bristol Spaceplanes' "Ascender" spaceplane performed its first test flights, flying at upwards of 80 kph (50 mph). The model is being used to study the low-speed handling of the full-scale "Ascender" which is the size of a business jet, and will carry 4 people to space and back.