Private Rocket Flight Set From Mideast (Dubai)

[NVMojo]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Adnan al-Maimani insists he isn't looking to be a pioneer - he just dreams of looking down on Earth. So the 40-year-old entrepreneur is paying more than $100,000 to go on the first flight traveling to the edge of space from a Mideast nation.

The flight, which will travel about 62 miles toward space and give its passengers up to five minutes of weightlessness, is part of an American company's plan to establish a spaceport in the northern tip of the United Arab Emirates.

Virginia-based Space Adventures - the only company to have successfully sent private citizens into space - won't say when the flight will take place, only that it will be within a few years.

But al-Maimani, 40, already thinks the project will be a boost to his homeland, which has seen a boom in construction and finance the past decade. "It's a great social and economic opportunity for the United Arab Emirates. It will create jobs and open up the economy even further," he told The Associated Press.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/apr/03/040300423.html

[Joanne98]

1. Isn't Bushco hooked in this somehow?

Maybe it's Cheney. I hopes he gets a good look at all the pollution the oil industry is causing.

[DBoon]

2. And there are no possible military uses of this, right?

nt

[Robb]

3. Once again, the free market is neither. nt

[Eugene]

4. It makes sense in a way.

Space tourism needs customers with money to burn,
and that's where the money is.

[damntexdem]

5. Who'll be in charge of space port security?

;-)