For now rocket ships seem firmly on the science writer’s beat. Several familiar bylines in the fold are among those reporting announcement from Boeing that it is partnering up with a space tourism booking agency to use an orbiting space capsule not only to rotate crews to and from the international space station, but to put plain folks with deep pockets in extra seats. One hopes a few reporters start angling to be, finally, the first journalist in space.
This may also herald the inevitable migration of rocket ship news to other beats just as aviation news did many years ago. After all, science writers flock to nifty archaelogy and paleontology news, but don’t pay much attention to the Land Cruisers, Land Rovers, and clapped-out Peugeot taxis that got them to their sites in remote corners of the developing world. Want to do research on the moon? Book a room at Bigelow Lunar Towers.
This is more than diverting space-tourism news. Most coverage sees the announcement as partial vindication for the current US administration’s decision to rely a lot more on private enterprise for getting humans and their cargo to space, and less on government-owned and operated transportation. NASA could then get back to its core mission of space exploration, science, and development of daring new technologies.
The news also gives a boost to cynics who said, every time some little startup rocket company advertised it can vastly undercut the costs of standard rocketry, that in the end the big boys (like Boeing) would take the ball away. But at least, in this case, the imagined Boeing capsule might go up there on a rocket from one recent spaceship startup, Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. One supposes that these tix to orbit would cost a lot more than whatever Virgin Galactic plans to charge for suborbital trajectories to the edge of space and back down all in an afternoon.Perhaps the market can bear them both.
Stories:
- NYTimes – Kenneth Chang: Boeing Plans to Fly Tourists to Space ;
- Scientific American – John Matson: Boeing unveils plans to launch private citizens into orbit ; Matson smartly tells his readers that the Boeing capsule is far from ready – much farther than its much more mundane Dreamliner next-generation commercial passenger plane.
- USA Today – Ben Mutzabaugh: Boeing: Space tourism flights possible by 2015 ;
- Houston Chronicle – Eric Berger: Boeing says it’s entering space tourism business ;
- Wash. Post – Mark Kauffman: Boeing, partner plan to carry travelers to space station with new spaceship ; Includes link to a video of the launch sequence, plus an image gallery.
- Los Angeles Times – W. J. Hennigan: Boeing enters space tourism partnership ;
- Mail (UK) Sarah Gordon: Boeing plans to send tourists to International Space Station by 2015;
- Space.com – Denise Chow: Boeing Aims to Fly Passengers to Space on New Capsule ;
- CBS – William Harwood: Boeing Plans Capsule to Fly Space Tourists ;
- … plenty more out there. Let us know if there are some outstanding ones to add to the list.
Department of Déjà vu:
An important nod is due to outlets that were more than a month ahead of today’s news gusher. The specific deal with a booking agency is apparently fresh, but the general business plan is not. The Orange County Register‘s Pat Brennan on August 5 reported “Boeing ‘cutting metal’ on new spaceship.” That Boeing is building a capsule was not news, but Brennan included the new space tourism angle with a reference to efforts by Las Vegas’s Bigelow Aerospace to build inflatable, private-market space stations.
And before that, on July 23, BBC‘s Jonathan Amos reported from the famed Farnborough Air Show in England that Boeing execs and engineers at their exhibit were openly talking of using its NASA-ordered Orion capsule or a derivitive to carry private citizens. Furthermore, standing and conferring with the Boeing suits at the show, he reports, was Bob Bigelow, the ‘Vegas hotel man (and UFO fan) whose plans to make money off space visitors are long standing and well-known. Ditto, at Space.com Denise Chow wrote the outlines Aug. 27.
I expect others were ahead of the game. For other, the announcement today is front page news.
Grist for the Mill:
Boeing Press Release ; Space Adventures Ltd Press Release ;
– Charlie Petit
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