IN MEMORIAM TO A PIONEER

Walter M. Schirra, Jr.s death was announced today.

Wally was the fifth member of the Mercury Astronauts to Orbit the Earth. He was the only member of the original Seven to Fly in a Mercury Capsule, a Gemini Capsule and the Apollo Program.

Wally died of a Heart Attack in San Diego, California at age 84.

So long Wally we will miss you!!!

SPACE PORTS ABOUND, ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND GLOBE

In the May "Air & Space" magazine on page 62 begins an article about the growing number of commercial civilian Space Ports in this country. The article is titled "Fields of Dreams". In the article they enumerate the civilian Space Ports that are a work in progress, 13 and counting.

This does not count the Military and NASA sites. There are also proposed launch facilities in Canada, Sweden, Australia, United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

For more information on the article you can pick a copy at your favorite Newstand or at www.airspacemag.com.

BURIALS IN SPACE

On Saturday, April 28th 2007, burial in Space took a step closer to being a fact when the Ashes of James Doohan,"Scotty" on Star Trek, and Astronaut Gordon Cooper were fired into near Earth Space in a suborbital Rocket Launch from the New Mexico Commercial Space Port.

For further information, please check the Sunday Republic Newspaper's "The Buzz" page A23.

ZERO GRAVITY RIDE FOR PROFESSOR HAWKING

Asrophysicist Stephen Hawking fulfilled the dream of floating free in a weightless state.

During a flight of the modified jet used to fly parabolic paths for zero-g, Professor Hawkins was able to make 8 weightless trips and on the last two was able to do weightless flips.

After the Flight He said "As you can imagine I'm very excited." He also said "I want to demostrate to the public that anyone can participate in this type weightless experience." He further stated "Space here I come."

This information was part of an A.P. article in the Arizona Republic and other sources.

SPACE TOURIST RETURNS TO EARTH SAFELY

American Billionaire Charles Simonyi returned safely to the Russian Steppes. Having spent $25,000,000 for the trip to the International Space Station, the trip appears to have been well received by him and enjoyed fully.

With the Space Tourist the ISS crew also returned to the Earth's surface, Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria. On this tour on the ISS Michael Lopez-Alegria set a U.S. record for the continous space flight by spending 215 days in orbit, he also set a record for U.S. space walks at 10 over his career.

BIGELOW AIMS HIGH

Bigelow Aerospace reveals near-term plan for commercial manned space infrastructure.

On page 22 thru 24 of the magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology for April 9, 2007 Bigelow Aerospace explains their near-term plans to launch a small fleet (3) of Space Stations. Each of the Space stations will contain two BA330 Modules of 330 cubic meters, one Module of 175 Cubic Meters (named "Sun Dancer") coupled to a Propulsion Bus.

The target date according to the article is 2015. Please refer to the article in the Aviation Week Magazine for additional information.

SPACE TOURIST ARRIVES AT SPACE STATION

The latest fare paying Space Tourist has arrived at the International Space Station. U. S. Billionaire Charles Simonyi arrived at the ISS aboard The Russian resupply ship along with two Russian Cosmonauts. The estimated cost to ride the Soyuz Supply vehicle was $20 to $25 Million dollars. The tourist even served a gourmet dinner that he had brought along to the crew.