People, look at the bigger picture here.
Sure, I\'d like nothing better than to space all memebers of all boybands without the benefit of pressure suits, but I\'ve put aside my distaste for them in regards to a space shot.
Why?
Simple. Publicity. Like it or not, the space program is suffering. Their funding almost always gets cut every year. They\'ve got to cut costs and take shortcuts, sometimes with spectacular (Pathfinder) or dismal (Mars Climate Orbiter) results.
So when Dennis Tito, that South African guy, and Lance Bass are willing to pony up $20m each to get themselves into space, I couldn\'t be happier, even though the money goes to the Russian program. If Lance Bass visiting the ISS gets any teen more interested in space, then you\'ve got nothing to complain about.
NASA\'s been trying to maintain a professional facade by mildly opposing these celebrity launches, but their resolve is weakening. I suspect we\'ll see people paying to go up in Columbia itself within a couple years. If I could afford the price tag, I\'d do it in a second (even though $20m is kinda spendy, considering it \'only\' costs $10k/pound to put something into orbit, and $20m is about 7x what it\'d cost to put me in orbit (including consumables and personal effects)).
Private funding by adventure-seeking millionaries is basically the only way we\'ll ever see space travel come down in price, now that the government\'s killed the spaceplane programs. It happened with ocean travel, it happened with planes, and it could happen with space.
Now if only this Seattle engineer\'s space elevator idea comes to fruition...
