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Publisher's note on SPACE TOURISM: In May 2001 American businessman and former NASA engineer Dennis Tito became the world's first paying space tourist purchasing an eight-day trip to and from the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz-U booster for $20 million. Many believe Tito's vacation jumpstarted the space-tourism industry, while others argue there still is no cost effective way to safely transport people to and from space.
Because human space travel has played a major role in the development of the Clear Lake/Bay Area community and thousands of local residents work in the aerospace industry, we decided to start an on-going Bay Runner series on space tourism starting with my March 2004 cover story on the X PRIZE competition.
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