Space travel is getting interesting again

[Crezth]

I thought there was a small space tourism industry? Or was that Russia?

Very small.

 

[Winner]

I am highly skeptical that the costs are not tied in large part to technical issues. And if some of the "people"-related issues are the pay of the related experts, then I can think of no reason why that should be cut when their work is abnormally difficult to replace. I'll check out that book, though.

Please do. Especially the analysis of the costs of the Shuttle programme is very interesting. Turns out the design choices dictated by politics had made it far more expensive that it needed to be.

I thought there was a small space tourism industry? Or was that Russia?

There is a company (Space Adventures IIRC) which has a deal with the Russian space agency which allows it to occasionally send someone up instead of a proper Russian cosmonaut. For an affordable price of tens of millions of dollars

(Still, if I had this much money, I'd go...)