Space tourism has a potential to be a multi-million dollar business in the next decades, and U.S. national space policy should be modified to support its development, according to a new study to be released in Washington Wednesday, SpaceCast has learned. The two year study, sponsored by NASA and conducted by the Space Transportation Association of Arlington, Va. indicates a host of new measures and research can be conducted by both government and the private sector to support space tourism development.

The study's main recommendations include:

Modification of U.S. national space policy to encourage the creation of a

large general public space travel and tourism business.

Focusing the U.S. Commerce Dept. on the coordination of space travel and

tourism matters with the federal government.

Urging NASA to continue the research and development of new generations

of reusable space vehicles, such as the X-33 and X-34 projects.

Move beyond the space station to determine design candidates for low

cost, affordable housing systems and space platforms.

Use the nation's multi-billion $ per year space transportation budget "so

as to allow rapid, and confident amortization of the cost of acquiring a

first generation privately financed general public travel and tourism

vehicle fleet".

Address longer term problems of launch site noise and atmospheric

pollution in anticipation of greater future launching rates.

Strike a balance between public safety issues and space travel operations

during early business development.

Institute a program to inform the nation on the steps being taken to open

up space to the general public.

The U.S. commercial space industry should support the development of

interest in developing new spacecraft that could accommodate tourism

activities.

The report predicts that a successful space tourism industry will have

been achieved when vehicles carrying 100,000 travelers to and from space

each year are in commercial operation, a prospect that the study suggests

is not decades into the future, but years, depending on how U.S. political

and business leaders respond to what the study writers suggest is a large

and pent up demand for the services.