Apparently it is now okay to buy a ticket into Space as long as you buy it overseas!

http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/world.cfm?id=SS01017487&feed=N

Nasa opens space for future tourism

By Jeremy Watson

HOUSTON, we no longer have a problem. Nasa is to rewrite its guidelines to allow tourists into space following Dennis Tito’s successful mission.

The American space agency, which resisted the Californian millionaire’s Russian-backed joyride to the International Space Station until launch earlier this month, says it is now "no longer opposed" to future visits by non-professionals on a commercial basis.

Next month, along with its ISS partners, it plans to publish new guidelines on safety, training and certification that will accept the inevitability of paid space tourism as long as certain strict criteria are met.

In a further dramatic shift of emphasis, Nasa is hinting it may soon review its policy of banning civilians from its own programmes. The ban was put in place following the Challenger shuttle disaster in 1985 when seven crew members, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first ‘amateur’ in space, died in an explosion shortly after take-off.

"NASA and its partners are not opposed to future visits to the International Space Station by non-professionals on a commercial basis as long as the safety and operational integrity of the station, its crew and all partner assets are not compromised," a Nasa spokeswoman said.

Nasa’s change of heart will provide a massive boost to the space tourism industry, which was dependent on Tito coming back unscathed from his $20m, six-day trip to the station.

The Russian space agency, Energiya, says it now has 10 more customers lined up to follow in 60-year-old Tito’s footsteps. "The question is not if we are going to send another tourist up into space, but when," said an Energiya spokesman.

The next slot for an ISS visit is October. Space Adventures, the company that brokered Tito’s trip, already has 60 potential space tourists on its books and is working on plans to build a reusable space vehicle within the next two years that can take tourists into space for a bargain-basement $100,000.

One competitor is Bristol Spaceplanes, a British firm aiming to build a space tourism craft. "The best prediction I have is that within 15 years space tourism will be affordable by middle-income people," said managing director David Ashford. "That means about a million people a year could go."

jwatson@scotlandonsunday.com