Last night, amid rain, wind, and near freezing temperatures, Virgin Galactic unveiled space ship two. The rocket plane, strapepd to the White Knight Two launch plane, was roled out on the runway before fans, future space travelers, and Arnold "the governator" Schwarzenegger.

And, something else amazing happened to the space tourism industry, competition! While Armadillo continues to develop their suborbital space tourism vehicle, Blue Origin has begun flights on their VTOL rocket which could also carry space tourism passengers.  Space tourism competition is really heating up.  And, of course, nothing drives inovation like competition.  Within a decade we coudl see real, viable comercial space flight.  Rock on!

Dateline: Kiruna, Sweden.

The northernmost city in Sweden, home of the famed Icehotel, will now be the European launch point for Virgin Galactic.

So why there?

Outside of Kiruna is the rocket range and research center: Esrange Space Centre.

"We hope Kiruna will become Europe's main launch pad for the tourist flights," Bergstroem-Roos said, pointing out that the town located some 145 kilometres (90 miles) north of the Arctic Circle has been home to the Esrange Space Centre since 1966.

Article link: breitbart.com: Space tourism to take flight in 2012

Space Tourism is really here.  Get out your checkbook and let's go!

Now Space Adventures has upped the ante by buying not just one seat aboard one of the expendable Soyuz spacecraft that have been the mainstay of the Russian space program since the 1960s, but an entire flight. A professional Russian cosmonaut will command the flight for two ticket-paying passengers some time in late 2011. - Popular Science Article

That's cool.

But if you go visit the Space Adventures website you will see that their ambitions are much higher than a simple "lob" up to the ISS.  They have on their agenda a launch to the MOON! Lunar Mission

Price - $100 million

By joining the Space Adventures Lunar Mission you will contribute to the dawning of a new era in space exploration and enter the history books alongside the great explorers of our time.

Awesome!