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Space Tourism Mini-Boom

Posted by michael on from the you-must-be-this-tall-to-ride-the-shuttle dept.

Transcendent writes "Russia sent up the second space tourist today. Mark Shuttleworth, a 28 year old computer entrepeneur from South-Africa , was launched up at around 2:22am (EDT) on the Russian Soyuz TM-34 shuttle for $20 million. He'll be spending 8 days upon the ISS in hopes to combat the spread of AIDs in Africa. Catch the (pre-launch) stories at reuters and spacedaily, and the (post-launch) story at CNN with bonus Tito quotes. Not only is he the second space-tourist, but the first African to go into space. It also seems that NASA is accepting the tourism a little more this time."

2 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WAR AGAINST AIDS! by jfengel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    According to the Space Daily article:

    While onboard the ISS, he will conduct scientific experiments for South African universities to help combat AIDS and other diseases. In particular Shuttleworth plans to do research on HIV proteins...While in space, Shuttleworth will also study the development of rat and ewe stem cells in microgravity.

    I'm not a chemist, but perhaps there are various chemical reactions that are difficult to pull off in gravity. It still sounds like it's 98% "Gee, I'm in space!" and 2% real science, but I hope something useful does come out of it.

  2. Space tourism is a GREAT idea! by tcm614ce · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Everybody's always worried about funding and what's going to drive the next space race. Here you go. It's the free market system at it's best.

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