The Sunday Review #9: The Space Tourism Edition

In the latest edition of the TIME magazine, there is an interesting article titled “The Space Cowboys” featuring some folks who are betting their money on the rise of space tourism in the years to come. Some of the big names that are toying with the concept (toying = already invested a ton of money and/or efforts):

• Richard Branson (..I mean Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin fame)
• Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com founder)
• John Carmack (co-creator of Doom and Quake computer games)
• Jim Benson (founder of Compusearch)
• Elon Musk (Paypal co-founder)
• Robert Bigelow (Budget Suites of America)
• Burt Rutan (creator of SpaceShipTwo)

Here is what the magazine says about Branson’s Virgin Galactic venture

Welcome to the prelaunch program of Virgin Galactic, which hopes to be the world’s first private spaceline, with liftoff by 2009. The adventure-addicted British entrepreneur says that over its first 10 years Virgin Galactic will send 50,000 civilians on a thrill ride more than 62 miles up into space-to escape gravity and ogle our small fragile planet. Initial cost for the two-hour adventure? $200,000.

Later on the article mentions this:

And despite the ticket price, sales are already closed for the first group of 100 passengers, called Founders.

If you thought entrepreneurship is only about starting new websites…think again.

And now time for some interesting articles of the week.

• Say No To Credit Card 0% Balance Transfer Arbitrage by Jim @ Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. I have indulged myself in this 0% balance transfer game in the past and have heard tons of arguments supporting and opposing the idea. In this post, Jim summarizes some of the potential pitfalls in making money with 0% balance transfer offers.
• How Your Credit Score Can Cost You Money - Even if You’re Not Trying to Get a Loan @ Debt Free. An elaboration on some costs that are partially decided by your credit score. It will be a fruitful exercise to read this post in light of Jim’s post mentioned above. Earlier, I shared my point of view on this issue through this post Bad Credit Hurts - How And Why?
• 5 Great Ways To Leave A Tip by Jeffrey Strain @ Personal Finance Advice. It’s all about money-art I have never seen such creative ways of leaving tips. Personally, I don’t like it when people crumple money…there is nothing like the feel of handling fresh crisp bills.
  
• PF Bloggers: Attitudes About Debt And Credit Cards by NCN @ No Credit Needed Blog: NCN has classified some personal finance bloggers based on their borrowing habits. I wish to draw attention to this post because of the comments it has gathered. For example, here is a part of a (ridiculous (?)) comment:
  

  You are fooling yourself by thinking the use of credit cards gives you points, regardless if you pay off the balance. Would an alcoholic carry a bottle of bourbon in their pocket to earn points to buy an airline ticket? That’s how ridiculous credit cards are.

  And there are some interesting replies to that comment.

• Spending Money as a form of Escapism by Matt @ One Million and Beyond: This might just sound like the story of most 20 something folks. Sometimes, I think we do understand the meaning of the word “escapism” but we don’t want to attribute it to our behavior…it’s sort of trying to escape from escapism.

Spaceshipone photograph source: www.scaled.com