With it being Saturday already back on the East Coast, former MirCorp CEO and convicted tax evader Walt Anderson is now a free man. And the Space Frontier Foundation is partying like its 1999.

Anderson, whose company MirCorp leased the Russian space station Mir during that final year of the 20th century, has been under house arrest at his parents home in Virginia since July as part of a nearly 8-year prison term in what the federal government has called the largest individual tax evasion case in history. He served most of the term in a federal prison in New Jersey.

The Space Frontier Foundation — which benefited from Anderson’s financial largess prior to his stay in the Big House — is having a “Flaming Mir” party in his honor on Saturday night at a restaurant in McLean, Virginia. The foundation is paying for drinks, light appetizers and desserts only, and it recommends attendees eat dinner before arriving. The RSVP email is [email protected]

(more…)

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook As long as we’re celebrating the anniversary of the SpaceShipOne flight, I thought these clips might be appropriate. Just happened to run across them today. The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Parabolic Arc’s Week in Review…. Space Tourism Turns Ten: The space community celebrated the 10th anniversary of the first private spaceflight by Dennis Tito. Since that time, six other millionaires have followed on seven government space missions (Charles Simonyi flew twice).  Truly private sector spaceflight — using its own vehicles — is still waiting in the wings. Two Steps Forward, One Back. In Mojave, SpaceShipTwo made its sixth glide flight […]

Miles O’Brien looks at the 10th anniversary of space tourism.

Parabolic Arc’s Fun With Numbers Tour continues this morning with a look at space tourism on this 10th anniversary of millionaut Dennis Tito’s historic flight to the International Space Station. And what a decade it’s been — for government space travel. Here’s why:

Table A(wesome): Human Spaceflight From Dennis Tito to Today

As Table A shows, space tourism has been making steady if unspectacular progress over the last decade. From zero percent on April 27, 2001, space tourism has climbed to nearly 3 percent of all crew members sent into space. Good job!

(more…)

Space Tourism Industry Plus 10 Evening reception, dinner and program April 28, 2011 West Los Angeles On April 28, 2001 Dennis Tito rocketed into Earth orbit as the first private space traveler. Today, six other pioneering private space travelers have voyaged off-world (and one flew twice). The Space Tourism Society (STS) is hosting this exciting anniversary. Mr. Tito will be our honored guest. We will also be honoring the pioneering […]

The Soyuz -- soon to fly again with billionauts aboard!

Pop the corks! Light up those Cubans with $100 bills! And order that Beluga caviar by the ton!

Yes, prospective billionauts around the world are celebrating today. They will soon have rides into orbit, thanks to a new deal between the Russians and an American space tourism company:

Space Adventures, the only company that has provided human space mission opportunities to the world marketplace, announced today the conclusion of an agreement with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA) and Rocket Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) to commercially offer three seats on the Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS), beginning in 2013.

These seats will be made available through the increase of Soyuz production, from four to five spacecraft per year. Each flight will be short duration, approximately 10 days, and will contribute to the increase of launch capacity to the ISS.

(more…)

PRESS RELEASE

“Who would not be thrilled at the news that the founder of Cirque du Soleil would be honored by an award you were involved in creating?” commented Eileen Borgeson. Artist Eileen Borgeson and holographer Jeff Allen collaborated to design the Dennis Tito Award for the heroic space tourists who train as astronauts and then return from a visit to the International Space Station (ISS).

(more…)