| mediacorp.com.sg, October 31, 2006 |
The sky's the limit for tourism profits should Singapore house its own spaceport
EXCITEMENT over billion-dollar deals being worked out between Singapore and the fast-developing United Arab Emirates rose to stratospheric heights, so to speak, over a proposal to launch a new tourism venture — that of sending well-heeled passengers on space flights from a terminal near Changi Airport.
While it might not muster the much-hyped glamour of 40-year-old Iranian-American business executive Anousheh Ansari's recent flight into outer space, for which she paid a whopping US$20 million ($31 million), passengers taking off from Spaceport Singapore in three years' time can experience an exhilarating sub-orbital ride close to 100km above the earth, for a more affordable $100,000 or so.
"The sub-orbital space transportation two-stage system named Explorer is now being built in Russia and will have the capacity to transport up to five people to space at a time," the managing director of Spaceport Singapore, Mr Michael J Lyon, told Today, after delivering a paper on the project at a UAE-Asia investment forum, organised alongside Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2006.
The commercial possibilities of space tourism are enormous and the market potential for sub-orbital spaceflights alone is estimated at US$1 billion annually, said industry sources. And the project will provide a big boost to Singapore tourism, helping to draw visitors eager for the ride of a lifetime.
Funds were being raised for the US$115-million project — which has a development partner in the Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), one of the states in the UAE — and an advisory board that includes Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, said Mr Lyon.
.Approval is being sought from Singapore's civil aviation authorities for the project, but Mr Lyon is already looking to the future, when spaceports set up in RAK and the United States could well reduce flying time between Singapore and New York to just one-and-a-half hours.
.Approval is being sought from Singapore's civil aviation authorities for the project, but Mr Lyon is already looking to the future, when spaceports set up in RAK and the United States could well reduce flying time between Singapore and New York to just one-and-a-half hours.
