Company/Web Site

Space Tourism Plan

Current Status 

Chance of Success & Availability

Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA) is a non-governmental organization that promotes aerospace projects and other space-related activities. They refer to themselves as "The European Private Manned Space Program".

The ARCA vehicle, called the ORIZONT, is an air launched spaceship (from a number of different platforms) with a multi-configuration swept wing design referred to as a variable geometry universal wing. Propulsion is provided by both an air-breathing engine and a rocket engine.

The ARCA design is about as unique as SpaceShipOne and in our opinion is an equally capable vehicle should it come to fruition. Without having that vehicle completed ARCA has already designed and is developing a new sub-orbital vehicle called STABILO.

Recently PlanetSpace announced it signed an exclusive agreement with ARCA to develop a private spaceflight project and collaborate on spacecraft technology.

Reviewed: 11/01/08
No change since our last report on 6/02/07.

Moving ahead slowly.

Not enough information to make a call but we believe the foundation on which to build a sub-orbital (and quite possibly orbital) Space Tourism program is in place. It is worth noting, however, that everything appears to have slowed down since late 2006.

Now with a direct link to PlanetSpace, ARCA could be onboard with a major player in the Space Tourism market. We believe that good things should come out of this arrangement no matter what spaceship actually flies and when it happens.

IL Aerospace Technologies (ILAT) was working on an Ansari X-Prize competition vehicle design called “NEGEV” (formerly named NEGEV-5) which was a  balloon-launched spaceship.

The vehicle’s configuration has gone through several design iterations. These modifications originated from ILAT’s technical team and advisory committee comprised of a former head of Israel Aircraft Industries MLM division, senior Aeronautical Engineers from AERODAN Systems; and an Israeli astronaut.

Not much has come from ILAT since the Ansari X-Prize. The highlight has been that their space tourism Business Plan reached the semi-finals in the annual Wharton Business Plan Competition which means that on paper they have all the right things in place from a business aspect. We cannot say if that is true from a space hardware aspect.

Reviewed: 11/01/08
No change since our last report on 6/02/07.

NOT Flight Ready

Not enough information to make a call.

We see this company going nowhere fast. There has been nothing of substance produced by ILAT to indicate that they are actually working on “NEGEV”. A great deal of engineering talent is in place, so why is there nothing to show for it? They have a business plan - we say implement it.

Pablo de Leon is an Argentine aerospace engineer with wide experience in space systems design, project management and development of space vehicles and components. He assembled a team of more than 42 scientists, engineers and technicians that volunteers to work on this program for years in order to one day achieve the first suborbital manned flight in Latin America.

Reviewed: 11/01/08
No change since our last report on 6/02/07.

NOT Flight Ready

Not enough information to make a call.

Space Transport Corporation (STC) was working to commercialize basic sub-orbital capabilities and advance to either sub-orbital Space Tourism or orbital launch services.

They were working on two sub-orbital payload launch vehicles, the Spartan and the Rubicon. The Rubicon platform was their intended vehicle to compete for the Ansari X-Prize but it never came into being. A third orbital launch vehicle called the Nano-Satellite Orbital Launch Vehicle or  N-SOLV was also on the drawing board.

STC concept was to design and manufacture all critical components for their  vehicles and believed that this "in-house" approach is what is necessary to cause change in the existing launch vehicle systems dominated by the major US aerospace industry companies.

Reviewed: 11/01/08
No change since our last report on 6/02/07.

NOT Flight Ready

Not enough information to make a call.

This company will be bumped down to Tier II do to a lack of progress in working towards a deliverable targeted  for Space Tourism.

As far as we can tell, they are out of business now having closed down their Web site. From the beginning everything they produced was just paper.

Space Adventures has teamed up with a private Russian company called
Suborbital Corporation to offer sub-orbital space tourism spaceflights aboard a vehicle called the Cosmopolis XXI (C-21, S-XXI).

Suborbital Corporation has ordered the spacecraft from the Myasishchev Design Bureau, Zhukovskiy. The three-seat Cosmopolis XXI will seat a pilot and two passengers. The spaceship relies on technologies developed for the Soviet Buran space shuttle and launches in a manner similar to SpaceShipOne.

Download a copy of the Suborbital Corporation concept here.

Reviewed: 11/01/08
No change since our last report on 6/02/07.

NOT Flight Ready

Not enough information to make a call.

The original gameplan had test flights for the Cosmopolis XXI to begin by 2004 with the first tourist flights of the vehicle planned for 2005 - 2006. They are so far off from that schedule that any information we receive on them is questionable.

It looks like Space Adventures is leaving no stone unturned in its attempt to get involved in all aspects of Space Tourism.