It's unlikely that wealthy space tourists will be able to buy their way onto a Shenzhou for quite some time. Russia still has plenty of incentives to keep offering seats on its Soyuz spacecraft for the world's small pool of aspiring orbital tourists. Commercial space tourism operators could be reluctant to assign passengers to a vehicle with such a modest flight record. China, in turn, would probably not want to take the risk of flying commercial passengers, or any foreign nationals, until Shenzhou has notched up a longer record of successful missions.

In any case, making a transition from a relatively guarded government project to a passenger service is an incredibly large leap.

China will probably try to introduce a greater commercial angle to Shenzhou in the future, but this will probably happen in incremental steps. Offers of flying personal items for profit could appear on future missions. China could also have its astronauts perform commercial research activities on long flights, possibly those involving its first space station. And there's always the potential for commercial flights of space seeds or animal gametes for agricultural breeding purposes.

Commercializing Shenzhou, at least to a peripheral degree, would make sense to the Chinese government. China has had a long history of drawing foreign currency from its space program, ranging from commercial satellite launches to the supply of entire satellites with launch vehicles. Human spaceflight is expensive, and anything that can help defray the cost of the program would surely be welcome.

At the very least, a token flow of currency would help bolster the overall case for sending astronauts into space, alongside such other justifications as national prestige, scientific research and defence.

Previous commercial space activities have included placing corporate logos on the side of rockets, or attempting to place commercial patches on the flight suits of astronauts. This is unlikely for Shenzhou. But China could still reap commercial benefits from Shenzhou without changing its mission plan.

Tourists flock to visit NASA centres, and also visit Russia to watch launches. Shenzhou launches are quite infrequent, but the potential for some form of tourism to Jiuquan would certainly exist. An entire town has been constructed to accommodate workers at the space centre. Adding a few more beds, and cooking more meals for some extra visitors, would surely not be difficult. Tours of Jiuquan could also be conducted "off-season", when no launch activity was imminent.

Given the infrequency of launches, this is effectively most of the time. China did stage a brief tour for some foreign reporters in 2004, but the eager correspondents saw very little in the way of space hardware. Perhaps a visitor's centre or theme park could be built close to the launch site, as NASA has done in Florida.

China is preparing to open a space museum in Shanghai in 2007. It's not clear how the revenue streams that will flow from this are integrated into the space progam. Does a cut from the entry fee finance the launch of China's astronauts? It's unlikely, but China can still claim to be making money from its space program, albeit through somewhat indirect means. Without a space program to promote, there would be nothing to attract people to the museum.

Your correspondent has previously noted the relative lack of souvenirs and paraphernalia relating to Shenzhou for armchair astronauts (see "Santa Claus and Shenzhou" elsewhere on spacedaily.com). Patches, uniforms and other items on sale in American museum gift shops simply can't be found for the Chinese program. Will there be more goodies available soon?

China apparently cut a deal with a long-life milk company to advertise its product as milk for Chin�'s astronauts. I have yet to see any other Shenzhou-related product promotions. Marketing of items such as foodstuffs is an interesting way of making Shenzhou accessible to the general public as well as gaining some revenue.

CCTV apparently did rather well from advertising revenue for the Shenzhou 6 mission. But did this state-owned enterprise pay any fees for the rights to cover the launch? One government organ paying another government organ is a somewhat circular argument, but the advertising revenue is still real input to the whole chain.

China's attempts at commercializing Shenzhou are miniscule at the present, and the secrecy surrounding the program is likely to prevent commercialism from intruding much further. But a steady track record of missions could eventually prompt China to gradually introduce more revenue streams to its human spaceflight program. It would be following a trend that's already in full swing around the world.

Dr Morris Jones is a lecturer at Deakin University, Australia

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