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Space Adventures Congratulates Scaled Composites And Paul Allen on the Success of Their First Ansari X-Prize Flight Attempt

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, congratulates Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and Paul Allen on their first flight in the quest to win the Ansari X-Prize. Space Adventures was delighted to have several of their suborbital spaceflight reservationists present for the historic flight and is the only company with an existing waiting list of over 100 deposits for reservations on future suborbital flights.

Space Adventures is the marketing and experience operations partner for many of the leading space vehicle manufacturing companies, including the Cosmopolis XXI Aerospace System (C-21), XCOR Aerospace, and several others. The C-21 was developed by the same company that built and flew the orbital Russian space shuttle, Buran, a decade earlier.

"The dawn of private space tourism is here and it is a reality -- privately funded suborbital space vehicles will be available for tourists in the next few years," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "For the past seven years, we, at Space Adventures, have been working diligently on shaping the market for future suborbital space travel. We've proved that there is a market and we're going to continue to lead the industry."

More recently, Space Adventures highlighted the tremendous future potential of the space tourism industry when they conducted a survey of 500 teenagers who overwhelmingly indicated a strong interest in space travel. When asked how much money they would start saving today to fly to space in the future, 61 percent of respondents said they would be willing to save at least a portion of their monthly allowance.

Private space tourism officially began in 2001, when U.S. businessman Dennis Tito became the first private citizen in space with Space Adventures and showed the world that there was a market of people willing to pay to fly to space -- even at the price of $20,000,000 (USD). "It was a privilege to be involved in the first mission of this kind and to lead the way for other private space explorers to fulfill their dreams too," said Mr. Tito.

Space Adventures also congratulates Mr. Allen and the Vulcan team on their plans to enable the creation of many licensed space vehicle operating firms that utilize the technology of SpaceShipOne, and Richard Branson on his plans to make Virgin Galactic one of those firms.

"These emerging companies are a testament to what Space Adventures has professed for almost a decade," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "This is the essence of private industry cooperation and competition providing the availability and affordability for all citizens to visit space. Space Adventures and Virgin Galactic plan to collaborate. Space Adventures' clients will fly to space on safe and reliable vehicles built by a variety of manufacturers."

Space Adventures is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia with an office in Moscow, Russia. It offers a variety of programs such as Zero-Gravity and MiG flights, cosmonaut training, space flight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts. The company's advisory board comprises Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, shuttle astronauts Kathy Thorton, Robert (Hoot) Gibson, Charles Walker, Norm Thagard, Sam Durrance and Byron Lichtenberg and Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott.

Space Adventures, Ltd.

CONTACT: Stacey Tearne for Space Adventures, Ltd., +1-202-256-7917,stearne@crosbyvolmer.com

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