India To Enter Space Tourism Market

With the space race heating up, several countries are exploring unorthodox ways of keeping their space programs afloat in order to finance their trip to the stars.

While other nations depend upon the “generous” donations of tax paying citizens, India is looking towards space tourism to help keep its solar dreams alive.

(Hindustan Times) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) seems to be in an expansive mood, the way it proposes to take potential space tourists on short duration sojourns in low earth orbit. The Isro Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair, thought aloud on this the other day and reportedly told the media that “well-heeled tourists” — read immensely rich wannabe astronauts — could go for week-long spins on board an Isro spacecraft in eight years’ time. The idea apparently is to use the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) to loft a couple of space tourists into a 400-km orbit around Earth.

By India opening up its facilities towards the private sector the government will be able to experiment with human space flight without the need to heavily tap into its public funds.

This move may also speed up India’s goal of sending its own citizens into space, and (with a little luck) upon the moon as well.

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