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OUTER SPACE
Space Odyssey
1/24/2008 12:00:00 AM
Billionaire Richard Branson and aerospace designer Burt Rutan have unveiled their model for the world's first tourist spaceship, which they plan to put on trial later this year. Branson's Virgin Galactic company aims to have the craft, SpaceShipTwo, pressed into full service for fare-paying passengers as soon as next year, for $200,000 a ticket. NEWSWEEK asked former NASA engineer and "Rocket Boys" author Homer Hickam about the final frontier for tourism--and whether those brave first passengers will likely need the return portion of their tickets. Excerpts:
NATION
A Galaxy of PR Woe
Lynn Waddell 12/14/2007 12:00:00 AM
It was perhaps the most unusual public-relations challenge in NASA history. One astronaut drove across country to confront another over a spaceman they both admired—leaving a criminal case and a trail of tabloid headlines in her wake. The February arrest of then-astronaut Lisa Nowak on charges of assault and attempted kidnapping (her lawyer has filed notice that he plans to plead not guilty by reason of insanity) brought unwanted scrutiny to a space program already beleaguered by mechanical malfunctions and shrinking financial support. This week, NASA released e-mails offering a glimpse into how the agency handled the scandal. One officer's e-mail suggested trying Nowak (who, along with her love interest, is no longer a member of the astronaut corps) in military court to limit media access, a suggestion the agency quickly dismissed. So how did the space crew do in fending off these public-relations asteroids? NEWSWEEK spoke with Gene Grabowski, vice president of Washington, D.C.-based Levick Strategic Communications, who worked damage control on the national pet-food recalls and the toxic Chinese toy imports earlier this year. Excerpts:
Astronauts Install Solar Power Beam
10/30/2007 12:00:00 AM
HOUSTON — Spacewalking astronauts bolted a solar power tower to the international space station on Tuesday, completing an ambitious three-day moving process and setting the stage for the unfurling of the beam's giant solar panels.
Astronauts to Open New Room
10/27/2007 12:00:00 AM
HOUSTON — Wearing goggles and surgical masks, the commander of the international space station and an Italian astronaut on Saturday opened the hatch to christen the complex's brand new room.
SCIENCE
Up, Up And Ka-Ching!

For decades after Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth in 1961, the notion that space travel could ever be possible—or affordable—for ordinary people remained the stuff of Hollywood fantasy and comic strips. Now the dream is on the launchpad. The quickest of trips—five minutes of weightlessness and spectacular views—is a viable business proposition. Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which recently unveiled its SpaceShipTwo, is only one of several competitors that hope to introduce flights costing a mere $200,000 apiece in the next few years, eventually bringing the price tag down to $20,000.
CULTURE
The Earth Behind a Man’s Thumb

There was at the end of 1968 an event that remains an inspirational symbol for the challenges ahead. For the Sixties were also the glory years of the American space program, and of astronauts such as Captain Jim Lovell. Lovell, who will be eighty in 2008, retains the boyish enthusiasm of an Eagle Scout, an award he earned growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the Depression, the son of a single mother. His father had died, and times were not easy for the Lovells. "We had a one-room apartment with a Murphy bed that came out of the wall," he remembers.