Is it just me, or is this Onion piece on space tourism uncharacteristically lame?

No, the giggle factor is being replaced by the snore factor. A few zillionaires go into space on Russian rockets, while alt.space ventures continue not to send them there. For most other people, it's ZZzzzz...

You couldn’t be further off the mark. Look back to any industry and you will see that in their early stages the cost for services could only be affordable to a select group i.e. rich people. Space Tourism is far from returning to the giggle factor and will never return to that point again. Those who are only able to catch some zzzzzz's while looking into space tourism fail to see the bigger picture.

Commercial space tourism is being developed today with our future in mind, and because of the rich people space tourism is seemingly catering to at the moment, their participation as pioneer space tourists will no doubt open the doors to better pharmaceuticals, advanced technology, greater safety (for when you decide to take a trip), future astronauts both Government and Commercial will benefit because of the work being done on space suit design, Earth will benefit from lunar and asteroid mining, the first planetary exploration mission may just be carried out by a commercial space program, and so much more. If anyone is laughing it’s because they just don't understand what we are doing.

I agree on the 'lameness' quotient. Usually, there's a lot more thought put into The Onion articles, and the more I know about the subject, the funnier I find them.

This one missed the mark.

I think possibly they were trying to satirize the ignorance of that portion of the general public who don't understand the difference between the space shuttle and the Starship Enterprise. It wasn't very funny though.

With all due respects of our gracious Web-site host, I think that humor piece is the essence of the Onion.

First of all, it is not about space tourism. The joke is about you, me, or the other average yutz who goes on some kind of vacation and gets guilted by family members, travelling companions, that we "didn't do enough" and "you mean you want all the way to North Dakota and you didn't take the side trip to see the World's Biggest Ball of String?"

The drawing of the connection between exotic tourism (millionare's ride into space) with the pro-forma mundane tourism that most of us are able to do and making a joke about the average guy out of it is the essence of Onion.