Friday, November 27, 2009

UCF Professor Helps Launch New Space-Travel Industry (Source: UCF)

More than 40 years after man first set foot on the moon, space travel remains for its many fans a lifelong dream that is rarely realized. Joshua E. Colwell, an associate professor of planetary science at the University of Central Florida, is about to help change that. In the past three months, Mr. Colwell and a few other university scientists have begun working with a group of small companies that are close to launching a new generation of privately built spacecraft that would let human passengers routinely travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere to the beginning of outer space. The companies bear such names as Space Adventures, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Orbital Outfitters. They expect their flights, at about $200,000 a ticket, to cater mostly to wealthy tourists, at least at first. (11/18)

Courtesy FLORIDA SPACErePORT

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