US Space Tourism Company Short Of Financing, Partners For Singapore Spaceport

Source : AsiaOne News, Sep 11, 2007

SINGAPORE (AP) -- More than a year after the project was first announced, U.S. company Space Adventures Ltd. said Tuesday it was still seeking local partners and financing for a Singapore-based spaceport to launch suborbital tourism flights.

The company said in February last year it was forming a venture with a Singapore-based consortium to build a US$115 million facility in the Southeast Asian city-state.

"It's not a done deal. We have a plan, we don't have financing, there's not enough local support," said Eric Anderson, president and chief executive of Virginia-based Space Adventures Ltd., on the sidelines of a business conference in Singapore.

Anderson said the company was also looking at a number of other Asian locations for its spaceport, including China, Japan and Korea, but remained confident of the Singapore project's success. He did not provide a timeframe for the project.

The flights to be offered at the spaceport would travel about 100 kilometers (60 miles) above ground, but would not reach speeds needed to sustain a continuous orbit around the Earth.

The flights would offer up to five minutes of continuous weightlessness, while "gazing at the blackness of space set against the horizon of Earth," the company said. The spaceport also will provide training for space tourists at an astronaut training center.

The project will be partially funded by the Crown Prince of Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, the company said.