Guest: Dr. Joseph Pelton. Topics: Space tourism, commercial space development, space plane safety, space economics. Dr. Joseph Pelton returned to The Space Show today to discuss his new book published by Apogee, "License To Orbit: The Future Of Commercial Space Travel." His co-author was Peter Marshall from the UK. This book is available at most book stores and online sites, including Amazon and the One Giant Leap Foundation website. To purchase this book through One Giant Leap Foundation, visit www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/books and click on Dr. Pelton's book. Purchases through One Giant Leap and Amazon benefit The Space Show. During our discussion, Dr. Pelton went over the regulatory part of space tourism and talked about regulations in the U.S., Canada, and also the UK. There were listener questions about accidents with fatalities including increased regulation, and the potential financial impact on the industry and company involved. We then asked Dr. Pelton about show stoppers for the industry which he discussed in detail in his book. Some of the show toppers discussed during the program focused on pollution and environmental issues and the development of military space. Spaceports were discussed and we looked at their economic viability. Foreign competition in the space tourism industry was brought up and Dr. Pelton brought us current with several space tourism ventures taking place in Europe and elsewhere. We talked about space education, the SFF Teachers In Space program and much more so you will want to hear this interview and what Dr. Pelton had to say about these important topics. A listener asked about establishing a cabinet level Department of Space. Joe was more supportive of bringing back the National Space Council under the Vice President's office. The Google Lunar X-Prize was brought up and as you will hear, Dr. Pelton looks to this and other contests for important contributions to space development and space tourism. We talked about putting more investment in robotic and unmanned systems and why that was so important. A caller asked for a definition of space tourism and wondered along with Dr. Pelton if we should not be referring to the effort as adventure travel or something similar.You do not want to miss this discussion. Toward the end of the show, our guest was asked about the most inspiring and prolific period in his teaching career for space activity, inspiration, and student enrollment. He suggested the era was the 1980's with President Regan as it was a period of high expectations and the start of the ISS program with the Russians. Make sure you hear this complete discussion. Earlier in the program, Dr. Pelton talked about space safety and space planes and suggested we all look at the published papers on this topic at www.issfoundation.org for the International Space Safety Foundation. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Pelton, you can email him at joepelton@verizon.net. I strongly recommend his book, "License To Orbit: The Future Of Commercial Space Travel."