Edward Hudgins, director of regulatory studies for the Cato Institute, said Tito's high-velocity outing rocketed awareness of public space travel to a new high.

"Everyone assumes that only government workers can go into space at the cost of billions of dollars," he said. "Now the public sees that maybe private citizens can go into space. Perhaps there is a private market. That is an idea that we have to foster over time. But I think the change in that perception, in the long term, really could lead to a private space tourism industry."

Three-time space flyer Charles Walker, now Boeing's director for International Space Station, Rocketdyne, and Space and Communications Services Marketing, said that, thanks to Tito, "we have just arrived, literally within months, where space tourism is alive and well in the public mind."

In the mid-1980s, Walker flew on three space shuttle missions as a "payload specialist" -- the first non-career, industry-sponsored astronaut. He labeled himself as a "working tourist", underscoring the absolute need for training to prepare for flight into space.

For space tourism to become real, numbers of technical, legal, financial, regulatory, and legislative issues must be dealt with openly and honestly, Walker said. Tito's flight did show the world that space tourism can and will happen. "Let's thank God that it happened safely," he said.

Upward momentum in building reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) is occurring overseas, said Yoshi Funatsu, chairman of the Space Travel Commercial Research Forum of the Japanese Rocket Society. He detailed the successful June 22 test hop of an experimental RLV rocket.

Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) is carrying out the work. Taking off from the Noshiro Test Site in Japan, the craft rose to a height of nearly 30 feet (9 meters). Admittedly one small step riding on smoke and flame, but better than smoke and mirrors.

Funatsu said that for space tourism to move into full swing, there is need for an integration of air and space traffic control. A healthy public space travel business is likely to spark other progress, he said, be it establishing solar power satellites to fostering a hydrogen-based economy here on Earth.

At the ready to bolster public interest in space travel is the Kinki Nippon Tourist (KNT) Company in Tokyo. Next month, the group is set to announce a Space Travel Club. KNT is the second largest wholesale tour operator and travel company in Japan.

Back in 1998, KNT helped a Japanese franchisee launch a sweepstakes for a suborbital flight through the soft drink company Pepsi. There were 650,000 applications from all over the country for five tickets, each valued at $98,000.

According to Joe Shiraishi of the company's Club Tourism division, KNT wants to stay in the forefront of orbital tourism. The group is convinced that excursion-class spaceships will become a driving force for the travel industry in the 21st century.