This blog continues on http://www.spacestart.eu

We've stopped the blog on this url and continue posting articles on http://www.spacestart.eu I would like to invite you to join the community on spacestart, so you can place or write your own articles.
Greetings team spacestart.

Commercial spacetravel

At this moment there are four large commercial space travel company's

At first we have Virgin Galactic which is a very well known company recently they have been a lot in the media because of their new spacecraft, Spaceship Two.
Virgin Galactic is the world's first spaceline. Giving you the groundbreaking opportunity to become one of the first ever non-professional astronauts. Virgin Galactic will own and operate its privately built spaceships, modelled on the remarkable, history-making SpaceShipOne.
Virgin's vast experience in aviation, adventure, luxury travel and cutting-edge design combined with the unique technology developed by Burt Rutan will ensure an unforgettable experience unlike any other available to mankind.
With safety at the forefront, our unique spacecraft is being designed at Rutan's base in Mojave, California alongside a concerted research and development programme.
"The deal with Mojave Aerospace Ventures is just the start of what we believe will be a new era in the history of mankind, one day making the affordable exploration of space by human beings a real possibility." Richard Branson.
It is these spaceships that will allow affordable sub-orbital space tourism for the first time in the history of the universe.
Website: http://www.virgingalactic.com/htmlsite/index.php

Bigelow Aerospace is also a well known company.
Bigelow Aerospace is dedicated to developing next-generation crewed space complexes to revolutionize space commerce and open up the final frontier to all of humanity. At Bigelow Aerospace, we're building the future today!
website: http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/

Space adventures is also offering space flights, you even can travel to the moon but it will cost you a 100 million dollar.
Space Adventures' vision is to open spaceflight and the space frontier to private citizens.
Over the next decade Space Adventures will fly more people to space than have made the journey since the dawn of the Space Age. Our clients will fly on suborbital flights, on voyages to Earth orbit and on historic expeditions that circumnavigate the moon. Flights will leave from spaceports both on Earth and in space, visiting private space stations, and aboard dozens of different vehicles. By continually providing newly available space experiences and improving existing space experiences, Space Adventures will continue to lead the private spaceflight industry that it begun in 2001 with the flight of the world's first space tourist.
website: http://www.spaceadventures.com/

And last but not least Spacedev this is the largest commercial space travel company.
SpaceDev (OTCBB:SPDV) is an entrepreneurial space systems company that develops high performance, innovative components and systems that are changing how we get to, explore, and use space. Our products range from spacecraft actuators that power the Mars rovers, to hybrid rocket technologies that powered the first commercial astronaut to space, and from microsatellites controlled by the Internet to Dream Chaser™, a winged and piloted orbital commercial spacecraft. SpaceDev products innovate, enable and perform.
website: http://www.spacedev.com/

Iran launches first space centre

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran on Monday opened a new space centre that will launch its first home-built research satellite, saying the inauguration marked another step forward in its battle against Western dominance. A rocket was fired into space at the remote desert centre in northern Iran to mark the event, the second time the Islamic republic has attempted to fire a rocket into space. "We witness today that Iran has taken its first step in space very firmly, precisely and with awareness," declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he gave the order for the launch. "The evil and dominant system's most important instrument is humiliating people and nations by making them think that they are incapable," he said in a reference to the West. The space centre includes an underground control station and launch pad which will be used to fire an Iranian satellite named Omid (Hope) into space in May or June, officials said. "Building and firing a satellite is a major and valuable achievement," said Ahmadinejad, who gave the order from the headquarters of Iran's space organisation in Tehran. The opening of the space centre comes as Iran has been trumpeting its progress in its nuclear programme, which the West fears could be used to make atomic weapons. The emphasis on Iran's development of its own domestic space technology is highly reminiscent of its insistence on developing its nuclear capabilities, which has led it into a four-year standoff with the West.
Read more

Presidential leadership can propel U.S. space program

This year, the 50th anniversary of the launch of Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite, has seen leading candidates from both parties taking an early interest in space. In fact, it has been the earliest appearance of space in a presidential contest since the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election. The candidates have generally supported a balanced and robust space program, but there has been little discussion about what this actually means. NASA today is faced with great uncertainty, stemming from the retirement of the shuttle, to questions about access and utilization of the international space station. These unanswered issues are of vital concern for the United States and its international partners, and the U.S. will need to make serious choices about ending existing programs to prepare for the return to the moon. Given the rise of China, and now India, as major powers in space; the significance of civil space activity as an inspirational and diplomatic tool; the need for better satellite data to monitor the environment; and questions at home about technology, innovation and competiveness, space policy will be an issue the next administration will have to address with more than platitudes and gestures. The next administration should take advantage of this opportunity for U.S. leadership to reorient, reinvest and reinvigorate the space program to make it serve once again as a beacon of hope, optimism and scientific discovery for all, rather than as another battlefield.

Read more

India, US to cooperate in space flights

India and the US plan to cooperate in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, including in the area of human space flights, under a new agreement between their space agencies. A framework agreement establishing the terms for future cooperation between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was signed on Friday at the Kennedy Space Centre by ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair and NASA administrator Michael Griffin. "I am honoured to sign this agreement with the India Space Research Organisation," Griffin said. "This agreement will allow us to cooperate effectively on a wide range of programmes of mutual interest." "India has extensive space-related experience, capabilities and infrastructure, and will continue to be a welcome partner in NASA's future space exploration activities," he added. According to the framework agreement, the two agencies will identify areas of mutual interest and seek to develop cooperative programmes or projects in Earth and space science, exploration, human space flight and other activities.
Read More