Finally, we’re seeing some small but real steps toward space tourism

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  Virgin Galactic revealed its newest spaceship this week. [credit: Virgin Galactic ]

Two developments this week show how US companies are making slow-but-steady progress toward ushering in an era of space tourism.

On Tuesday, Virgin Galactic released images of its next-generation suborbital space plane. A few hours later, the two final crew members for an all-private mission aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft were publicly named. None of this is happening as soon as we might hope in regard to space tourism. But things are, at least, happening that may slowly drag us nearer the day when more and more “regular” people can go into space.

First, we’ll look at the specifics of these announcements. Then, we’ll discuss their significance.