Singapore, United Arab Emirates Jump Into Space Tourism Race

Space Adventures announced plans yesterday to open a spaceport in Singapore by 2009, just three days after releasing plans for another spaceport in the United Arab Emirates. The news escalates a race between Space Adventures and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to be the first company to offer commercial space flights. The Independent’s Justin Huggler writes that Space Adventures has a slight lead. It has sold a Chinese businessman, Jiang Fang, a place on a sub-orbital spaceflight next year. Branson’s outfit plans to send its first passenger to space from a spaceport in Roswell, New Mexico by 2008.

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