Spaceflight

Space Adventures, the company that organises International Space Station tourism flights, is to buy vehicles for its own suborbital flight service. The company is evaluating the spacecraft currently in development by Scaled Composites, Rocketplane, TGV Rockets, Blue Origin and others and is examining spaceport facilities around the USA.

Mojave-based company Scaled Composites is building SpaceShipTwos for Virgin Galactic. Oklahoma-based companies Rocketplane and TGV Rockets are working on a modified Learjet and a vertical take-off and landing vehicle, respectively. Blue Origin, based in Seattle, Washington, is also developing a vertical take-off and landing vehicle, to be launched from Texas.

Space Adventures’ evaluation work is to be carried out at a new spaceport development and suborbital spaceflight office at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, to be staffed by five to six people. “We would be interested in owning our own vehicle,” says Charles Sammon, vice-president for spaceport development and suborbital spaceflight.