Tunisia - Nabil Zaghdoud
As part of the scientific and cultural exchange between Tunisia and the United States, astronaut Marsha Evans was a special guest at “Science City” in Tunis on Wednesday evening, where she had a meeting with representatives of the local media. During a meeting with the media, Marsha Evans spoke about her experience of journeying into space, and claimed that, \"Tourism in space will be a reality in three or five years from now, which confirms the existence of a real market for this profitable form of tourism.\" She stressed that this kind of space flight would require substantial funds from visitors, or companies organizing this type of flight. Evans also revealed that they were attempting to run a number of space exploration programmes, trips, and visits, and the possibility to orbit Earth. These programmes are being prepared by several U.S. and foreign companies, asserting that the contribution of the private sector remains essential for the development of this sector, and the formation of young people in the field of space science. Evans turned to the theories about the end of the world and the invasion of aliens in the year 2012 saying: \"The programmes of the U.S. space agency NASA, which involve many nations and nationalities, have not found any scientific proof for these rumours.\" Marsha Evans has gone on five space flights of up to 1342 hours, and her most recent trip was in 2001.