Space News Letter to Editor

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophile"
wrote:

> > How is orbital tourism different other than going higher? If
that's
> > all it is, why do you consider it to be a significant milestone?
>
> It's harder to do, and it is needed for anything that requires
more
> than 15 minutes or so of weightlessness (like the sports).
>

Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttlesworth were orbital tourists before
there were any sub-orbital tourists.

While it may be technically harder to achieve orbit than to graze
through sub-orbital space, we're already doing it.

Pricing, market size and available launch resources are the big
gorillas in this question.

There is a market need for orbital launch capability but no existing
sizable market for suborbital, YET.

So, as a SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE, I can see suborbital commerce being
a substantial step forward because it would develop new technologies
and markets, but I don't see why having tourists do an orbit or two
around the earth is on par with that achievement. They can do that
now if they want to buy themselves a Soyuz launch.

As SIGNIFCANT MILESTONES, I think that the other points raised push
the boundaries.

TangoMan