Happy return: After 14 days in space, Charles Simonyi landed in Kazakhstan on April 21, 2007, rubber-legged.
Credit: REUTERS/Sergei Remezov

Essay

"Very Stunning, Very Space, and Very Cool"

  • January/February 2009
  • By Adam Fisher

An oral history of the launch of space tourism.

   

Update: Charles Simonyi blasted off in the Russian's Soyuz spacecraft on Thursday, March 26, for his second trip to the space station. The Russian Federal Space Agency also announced that it will no longer be taking "private" space tourist after 2009.

In 1995, Peter Diamandis founded the X Prize Foundation, which started a private space race by offering big money to the first group that could perform two manned suborbital flights within two weeks. In 1998, he cofounded Space Adventures Ltd. with $250,000 in seed capital and an even more audacious idea for bringing the private sector to bear on space exploration: tourism. It took three years of negotiations with the Russian authorities, but in 2001, former NASA engineer turned financier Dennis Tito flew to the International Space Station and back in a Soyuz capsule's third seat, next to the commander and engineer. Tito and Space Adventures opened the stars to anyone who could pay the freight.

 

To read the entire article you must log in:

Most of our content — all daily news, blogs, and videos — is free. Magazine stories are paid. To read this story, you must have a subscription or you must use a reading credit. Registration to Technology Review is free and entitles registrants to three free reading credits.

Username or REGISTER
Password  
   
 
Advertisement

MAGAZINE

Can We Build Tomorrow's Breakthroughs?

Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.

Videos

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner June Andronick

More

Advertisement

Technology Review Lists

TR50

Our list of the 50 most innovative companies, including the following:

Pacific Biosciences

Goldwind Science and Technology

Life Technologies

ARM Holdings

More

Advertisement

Facebook

Advertisement