Frogs in Space

Europe looks up, notices space, decides to give it a shot:

EADS Astrium, Europe's biggest builder of satellites and rockets, is this week expected to announce plans to carry tourists into space. The firm is due to unveil plans at the Paris air show for a spacecraft that will carry tourists out of the atmosphere for a brief ride at 3,000mph before ferrying them back to Earth….

A spokesman for EADS Astrium said: "We are going to reveal a space tourism project next week for the Paris air show." The scheme is thought to be the first step in a plan to take space tourists into orbit and even to dock at a "space hotel".

The more, the merrier, I say. Optimism about falling prices abounds:

So far there have been five space tourists, who have paid millions of pounds to board Russian rockets. Experts believe that the price will come down drasti-cally in a matter of years.

John Zarnecki, who is a professor of space science at the Open University, said: "I am still waiting for the easyJet and Ryanair treatment of space travel."

Read all about Americans (and other Commonwealthers) in space here.

In other news, frogs have already been to space.