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> There have been more negative comments from members of this group, in
> effect that NASA or some other government is keeping us from our dreams of

No, specifically NASA and ESA.

> space commerce. My reaction is that is silly. If it were not for NASA and

Please, look more closely at the facts, I will spell them out for you.....

> the Soviet (now Russian) space programs humans would yet to go to space.
> The prospects of developing space commerce has been aided by these
> government programs, maybe not as fast as could have been done, but private
> organizations have yet to put a single human in space, though of course with
> the Russian government's help MirCorp did. Without the efforts of

That is the whole point.

It was the RUSSIAN govenrment, not the USA and not ESA !

USA and ESA were fighting Russia all the way.

The central question is, are they still doing so ?

That remains to be seen. The situation right now is very confusing, and that is NOT a healthy environment
for commercial activity.

Above all, commercial activity needs consistent support
from governments, and they are not getting it.

There is still outright opposition at very high levels of ESA and NASA, and indeed on Capitol Hill.

> If you don't receive spacenews from http://www.space.com/ I encourage you
> to consider it. It is upbeat and almost always positive. Their latest
> e-letter includes, "The question of the flight of South African tycoon Mark
> Shuttleworth to the International Space Station (ISS) as a space tourist
> remains open, spokesman for the head of the Russian Aerospace Agency Sergei
> Gorbunov told Interfax on Friday." You can get more

That information is at best incomplete, outdated, and very probably inaccurate.

Here is the scoop:

1) There has been a major difference of opinion between
Russia and Shuttleworth. Last I heard was this:

2) Itar-Tass issued a report on October 5th quoting RSA director Yuri Koptev as saying that the Shuttleworth
trip has been cancelled, and cited several reasons. This press release was posted in the Usenet newsgroup sci.space.news

3) This report is confirmed by http://www.nasawatch.com/
stating that Shuttleworth is "disappointed ".

===

Even if Russia had approved the flight, it is still unclear whether NASA would have allowed it. They gave way on the Tito flight, but they are still threatening to bill Russia for the cost of "disruption". That issue is still not resolved, and represents a major unknown quantity, and is a major drag on space tourism development.

I am hopeful it will be resolved utlimately, but the fact remains that ESA and NASA are still major obstacles. Space tourism will hapen DESPITE ESA and NASA, not because of them.

I applaud Russia on the other hand for taking a much more supportive position. Let us hope they prevail, but the jury is still out.