62 Mile Club

(Source: Market Wire)
SpaceDev reported year-end revenue of $34.7 million, an increase of over $2 million from 2006. Income from Operations improved by over $1 million. Net loss was reduced by $700,000. SpaceDev reported net sales of $34.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2007, an increase of $2.1 million, or 6%, from the $32.6 million in net sales reported for 2006.

(Source: SpaceToday.net)
The Justice Department would approve the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio without any conditions on the deal. In a statement, the Justice Department concluded that the merger of the only two satellite radio companies that serve the US would not “substantially lessen competition”, in part because of technical incompatibilities between the two companies’ receivers as well as a number of competing alternatives, including the Internet. Terrestrial radio companies had sought to block the merger, claiming it was anticompetitive, but the Justice Department rejected those arguments and concluded no conditions were required to ensure no harm was done to consumers. The merger, announced in February 2007, still required the approval of the FCC, which has not set a timetable for its decision.

(Source: Miami Herald)
After becoming one of the first humans to walk on the moon, astronaut Buzz Aldrin returned to Earth and grappled with depression and alcoholism. At age 78, Buzz Aldrin has the posture of a military man and can talk at length about his experience with fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong as the first humans to walk on the moon. But Aldrin didn’t come to Fort Lauderdale on Friday afternoon to solely talk about space travel. His message was far more personal. It was about his lifelong battle against depression and alcoholism.

Unprepared for the fame and uncertain of his place in the world upon his return from space, Aldrin said he struggled for years, dropping in and out of treatment programs and claiming recovery only to relapse. “There is much more hope for people that in the past just didn’t face a good promise of recovery,” he told reporters at a press conference organized by Broward Housing Solutions, an organization that provides affordable housing for homeless people who have mental illness. Aldrin was the keynote speaker at a fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale to benefit the housing organization.

(Source: Space Review)
Last weekend’s failure of a Proton rocket is the latest complication for the commercial launch industry, which has seen manifests fill up and customers complain about schedules and costs. Jeff Foust reports on the differing points of view about whether there are enough — or even too many — launch services providers. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1090/1 to view the article.

 (Source: SpaceRef.com)
Odyssey Moon Limited, a commercial provider of lunar transportation products and services, announced today that it has reached a commercial launch services agreement with Celestis, Inc., the pioneer and global leader in Memorial Spaceflight. The agreement provides for payload capacity aboard Odyssey Moon’s lunar missions for placing memorial flight capsules and modules in lunar orbit or on the Moon.” Visit http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=25044 for information.

(Source: London Free Press)
Private flights to the moon may be available to wealthy citizens “by the end of the 2020s,” a NASA official said in London today. In the meantime, there’s a new kind of space race — one in which private companies are scrambling to reap commercial rewards from other-worldly exploration. “We are not going to succeed in settling the solar system as a species without significant private-sector involvement,” said Peter Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center in California. Even now, companies such as Google — which recently launched a companion to Google Earth mapping with Google Moon mapping — are ponying up their multi-millions to join the race to the moon.

(Source: National Ledger)
Will space tourism lead to joining the mile high club? With multiple companies building suborbital tourism spacecraft, will space tourists really try to go at it in space and take the mile-high club to the extreme? For the price they are paying and the stories they can tell you can bet on it.

(Source: PR USA)
Farina and Associates, the leader in security and risk management for the global hospitality and tourism industries, announced a partnership with Planehook Aviation Services to provide security solutions to the space tourism industry. “Threats to the space tourism industry can come in all shapes and sizes including terrorism, criminal, negligence, environmental, sabotage and competition. We are now looking at a combination of internal and external factors that will have dramatic effects on the success of a spaceflight operation.” stated Philip Farina.

 (Source: Flight International)
Few companies can boast revenues worth tens of millions of dollars before actually delivering the “ultimate experience” promised – but that is what Virgin Galactic has achieved with its sales pitch that fulfils the dreams of the Apollo generation’s wealthier members to carry them beyond the Earth. That tantalising dream of travelling above the 100km (62 mile) boundary separating the Earth from space has seen 250 customers, mostly in their forties and fifties, sign up for a trip through direct contact and a new network of 90 agents worldwide, generating $35 million in full ticket purchases and deposits, all of which is held in escrow.

(Source: New York Times)
A price war already is brewing among companies seeking to sign up would-be space tourists, years before the first privately financed rocketplanes are scheduled to begin flying. XCOR Aerospace, the latest entrant to the derby to blast thrill-seekers into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, unveiled plans for a rocket-powered vehicle that is substantially smaller, slower and less expensive to build than any of those proposed by rivals. With tickets projected at $100,000 a pop, the low-fare carrier to the heavens would hardly be cheap.