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  RAE Space Tourism conference 2009
Phil Clarkson, CEO gives a brief appraisal of the recent, Second Space Tourism Conference held at The Royal Aeronautical Society, London 30 June 2009.
London – The conference took on the same format, split into individual sessions, as three years ago which I guess is only to be expected but there was a slightly different atmosphere which was difficult to pinpoint at first.

Three years ago there was perhaps a different element of excitement, as if all the participants were living within a dream, the same dream of expectation they had all held individually for many years. The first conference had almost an air of forbidden fruit; fruit just maybe within reach. This had of course been prompted by the success of Spaceship One in winning the coveted X-Prize. SS 1 had heralded the dawn of genuine and realistic sub-orbital excursions for tens of thousands of future Space Tourists.

The second conference felt more business-like, not in terms of the enthusiasm of the attendees, which of course remained unabated in the extreme, but more the sense that Space Tourism in all its potential guises is now very firmly with us and on a real-time agenda. Not so much, ‘Sooner or later this will happen.’ Much more, ‘This is happening and happening now!’ This was later significantly emphasised by Dr George Nield from The US Federal Aviation Authority.

This conference was a much more ‘matter of fact’ discussion and appraisal of real work in progress and real timescales for the start of a new industry.

Yes, it was debated that there had been obstacles and delays, technical, legal and indeed financial but participants were left in no doubt as to the validity and viability of Space Tourism and that “New Space” had arrived.

I will not dwell on the minutiae of individual presentations as the contents are widely available, but more try and convey a brief personal assessment of where the contributors stand now.

The first four guest speakers, Tom Shelly of Space Adventures, Andy Nelson of XCOR, Hugues Laporte-Weywada of EADS Astrium and of course the ubiquitous Will Whitehorn of Virgin Galactic represented the corporations effectively in the front line of driving “New Space” and no one can deny the immense contribution that these businesses have made driving the industry, but perhaps from different starting points.

Tom Shelley naturally re-emphasised the fact that Space Adventures had been the first and thus far only company to send private citizens into space. Tom also hinted at new developments within the sub-orbital market being engaged by Space Adventures. To be fair however, at this stage it cannot be denied that however exciting their achievements, their products are nevertheless seen as available only to the extremely super wealthy.
Perhaps for the time being, as such excursions are so extremely limited, Space Adventures have lost sight of the P.R. problems surrounding NASA in the early Seventies. The world agreed the space programme was amazing but the general public disengaged from the excitement as it was seen as so unattainable and so remote to the aspirations of the man in the street.

Andy Nelson of XCOR however, reporting the progress made in development of The Lynx Sub-Orbital space craft was addressing an entirely different aspect of personal space flight: A relatively affordable day-trip to the edge of space. Yes a trip will start being expensive, but there is no doubting the difference between $95,000 and $25,000,000! At this lower price level, re-engagement with the general public regarding the likelihood of a space flight is real.

Andy alluded to additional developments within XCOR with the construction of Lynx 2 flying higher than Lynx 1. No more information was forthcoming save that initial passengers would fly on Lynx 1 but now I imagine everyone waits with interest.

Perhaps more disappointingly was the announcement by Hughes Laporte-Weywada that EADS Astrium’s, (despite a declaration with a big fanfare in Paris a couple of years ago), entrance into the sub-orbital market had all but ceased. Having completed their “pre-project phase” there were no plans to actually build the vehicle in the near future.

He did explain that EADS Astrium fully anticipated entering the market and that they had never claimed that they would be in the vanguard but was unable to confirm any time scale. The primary reason, he further explained, had been lack of ability to interest third party finance participation. This however unfortunately begs the question about private investors joining forces with Government agencies. Such agencies rightly or wrongly are renowned for their profligacy and especial lack of commercial urgency. One can only guess the answer and eventual outcome.

And finally, in the first session, Will Whitehorn of Virgin. As ever, a compelling and fascinating presentation but one with little spicy, hot off the press news. Apart from fabulous video and fabulous photographs and a general confirmation of their intended final phase of testing, perhaps the most significant element was reference to Virgin’s amendment of their business model. Given that Space Tourism was the initial driver, the broader marketplace involving commercial applications of the Space Ship series has clearly been presenting itself.

This of course may not appear significant to the would-be tourist, but it indeed has important implications. Additional income streams that may be available to both Virgin and other operators of Sub-Orbital craft will be diverse and this diversity means the Finance Directors will not have to base their numbers on Tourism income projections alone. More a question of Tourism: Plus, Plus, Plus. This can only be a good thing.

Will did make a couple of references to existing legal snags but they are best dealt with in the context of the contents of the other speakers.

There was a small, inevitable display of commercial rivalry between the speakers and this was only to be expected but at this conference, a real rivalry, a rivalry relating to which available experience would be the greatest and indeed the first…not whether or otherwise the flights will actually take place!

Mention of course was made of other Space Tourism companies, notably Jeff Bezos and his highly secret development of Blue Origin and the equally amazing, ongoing efforts of Bigelow Aerospace. As reported however, these efforts, despite periodic announcements of he completion of various successful phases, do remain mainly secret and the participants were left to speculate on their own.

The next session was be more concerned with earthly practicalities and the nuts and bolts of the essential infra-structures required to operate a sub-orbital excursion business.

There were two contributions concerning possible future European launch sites, Loosiemouth in Scotland and Kiruna in Sweden and an examination of where the Insurance industry now stands.

Within the UK, as pointed out by Whitehorn earlier, no legislation whatsoever exists to allow passenger space flights, even conventional horizontal take off vehicles. Quite clearly European and UK Airspace is far more crowded than the more remote areas within the USA but that apart, the block on any further activity in this area is clearly a question of political will. Thomas Callum however, on behalf of Loosiemouth made a very interesting announcement. In addition to amply proving the case for a Loosiemouth Spaceport; it would appear that The Scottish National Party have picked up the baton of political motivation and maybe The Scottish Parliament may steal the thunder from central UK Government.

Far more politically optimistic was the delivery by Mattias Abrahamsson of The Swedish Space Corporation. It was perfectly clear that the Swedish political pendulum had swung in favour of the development of the facility at Kiruna into a fully operational European Spaceport. We were left in no doubt that Sweden wished to pioneer the new market along with The USA. This continued effort may eventually wake up the European market.

Cedric Wells, an Insurance specialist was next to speak. Mr Wells was in the unenviable position of having to explain the drier elements of the Insurance Market and how the essential financial risk assessment calculations that will be critical to operations within the Space Tourism industry are in their infancy. Nevertheless these questions are definitely beginning to wake up some specialist Insurers. Dr George Nield, speaking later, went on to expand some US thinking on this.

In the next session it was interesting to note the degree of contrast between US and European perspectives as presented by the next speakers.

This session kicked off with: Andre Farand. Head of Launchers and Exploration Legal Matters Office. ESA.

Mr Farand echoed the comments of Mr Laporte-Weywarda and recognised the current divisions between “New Space” and “Old Space” but was at pains to point out that the demarcation lines would become more and more blurred as “New Space” became established in the coming years. He further went into the problems concerning Earth’s finite resources and the inevitable necessity for man to explore space. He was clearly committed to the belief that the ‘big engineering’ of “Old Space” and the ‘more nimble engineering’ of “New Space” would be driven to coalesce in the future by commercial need and welcomed the advent of the process.


Next to speak was Dr George Nield: Dr Nield holds the title: “Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, Federal Aviation Authority.”

That in itself says a great deal. It illustrates with no doubt that the FAA is seeking to develop and eventually finalise the regulatory framework within the US that will permit the advent of Space Tourism. Dr Nield confirmed this, lest the audience be in any doubt. Dr Nield further explained that his brief was to “Regulate and Promote” the new industry, he stressed the word “Promote”.

Undoubtedly such a framework will then become a template for other nation states to design their own regulations. He went on to touch upon the personal insurance elements surrounding ‘Space Tourists’, a point raised by Will Whitehorn previously. Dr Nield continued, explaining that “passengers” should be more realistically viewed as “participants” thereby perhaps changing the legal status of the individual flier and thus changing the perceived degree of an individual’s risk.

After examination of such a dry legal point, Dr Nield went on to offer the most welcome of views. He emphasised that the FAA felt that in two to three years there would be hundreds of sub-orbital flights per year carrying thousands of people. These comments alone summed up the essence of The Conference as a whole.

And finally mention must be made of Richard Garriott who concluded the formal part of the conference. Well what can one say? The guy really has Been there! Done that! Got the T-shirt!

A man totally absorbed and driven by his early ambition to go to space! Even more, a guy deeply committed to establishing a new fascination amongst younger generations to all the aspects of Space and Space Travel. A totally absorbing delivery…so much so, I put notebook away…listened to every word and like most of the audience just sat there with my mouth open in complete amazement! Magnificent!


As to Space Miles: Firstly allow me to advise that since 2006, Space Miles has successfully relocated operations to The Isle of Man and we wish to thank the IOM Government for not only making us welcome but also providing a business-friendly atmosphere within which to continue our endeavours. Thanks for all their help!

Space Miles has always been promoted as a service industry, (albeit wishing to offer a considerable service!), to Space Tourism as a whole. It has always been the case that The Space Miles Loyalty Programme would add the element of affordability to oil the wheels of Space Tourism. We too have had to grit our teeth whilst all the problems of the last few years have slowly been solved. Firstly we were told by the financial community that passenger space flight was twenty five years away. Then we were told that a credit card loyalty scheme would not be feasible due to the cost of flights and the minimal value of existing reward schemes.

That has all changed. We are now only months away from serious test flights, and more importantly, with the recent proven success of the Zions Bank retailer based Coalition Loyalty Programme, (spread across the whole of the Western US), returning on average 22% of card-spend back to the customer as a real cash saving programme, our proposed model is not only feasible but we hope will seriously contribute to the advent of Space Tourism not only within The US but across the world.

We have added The Space Shuffle Lottery, (our sister site: www.thespaceshuffle.com) to our endeavours. However we are waiting patiently until the first vehicle tests actually happen to launch our fully licensed lotteries so that our players will not be caught in an ‘expectational lead-time trap’. Essentially when we launch, our prize winners will be able to see their space flight prize on their immediate horizon, to have their ticket and allow us to actually book the dates for their journey. It will be tangible and real and not just a far off promise!

Happy Landings!!

Phil Clarkson