In late 1996, Mike McDowell mentioned to me that he was thinking about investing in a company planning to build a sub-orbital launch vehicle. I told him he was crazy! Having run a launch company in the past, and then working on creating the X PRIZE, I new that the chances of placing a bet on any single launch technology was a long shot! He agreed not to make the investment and instead he and I put the initial capital into a newly formed company called Space Adventures, specifically with the intent to pre-sell tickets for future X PRIZE vehicles as well as create other near-term space tourism experiences complementary to sub-orbital flights and ZERO-G's planned programs. The company was formed in January 1997 with the vision of being a full service provider for space tourism programs. With the additional of Gloria Bohan and Eric Anderson to the founding team, the company announced itself in October 1997 at nearly the same time that Zeagrahms Space Voyages announced their plans. Mike initially served as Chairman and President, and I served as a Founding Director. The company was headquartered out of my home along with ZERO-G and X PRIZE.

In 1998, Eric joined full-time as Vice President, and later became CEO & President of the organization guiding it to significant growth over the following 3 years. Under Eric's leadership, Space Adventures would later purchase Zeagrahms through the financial support of Board Member Richard Garriott.

In December 1999 I was contacted by John Spencer and Michael Eastwood and told about a certain fellow by the name of Dennis Tito who was a very successful financial entrepreneur interested in spaceflight. In January I met with Dennis to discuss his possible interest in helping to fund the X PRIZE and/or ZERO-G... Dennis mentioned his interest in actually flying into space.

As it happened, Richard Garriott has previously funded Space Adventures to run a $100,000 study with the Russian Space Agency to investigate the feasibility and cost of sending a passenger to MIR or (as a back-up) the International Space Station. Richard, the son of an Astronaut, wanted to be the first second-generation Astronaut to get to fly. The answer from the study came back affirming that the Russian Space Agency thought that, not only was a MIR trip feasible, but that an ISS trip might also be achieved.

In February, on a subsequent trip, I was able to introduce Eric to Dennis and the discussion of Dennis flying to space as the first private astronaut began. It was a few months later at a local LA Space Gala that Dennis met the MIRCORP group who began courting Dennis for a trip to MIR. When MIR de-orbited, Space Adventures was able to work with Dennis and the RSA to make his April 2001 flight to the ISS feasible. While MIRCORP made a series of claims about being the "entity that brokered the flight" the fact of the matter is that Dennis paid Space Adventures a sizeable commission and didn't pay a dollar to MIRCORP.

Today Space Adventures is a profitable, growing concern with a great team of dedicated people. The company sells orbital programs (having flown both Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth), and pre-sells $98,000 seats on future sub-orbital spaceflights. The company also sells zero gravity flights in Russian and a variety of super-sonic Russian aircraft flights.

Peter H. Diamandis
Co-Founder and Shareholder

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