Burt Rutan's Spaceship One made it to the edge of space today.
Damn.
Sure, it's not orbital (has to go higher and much much faster to make it to orbit), but it's the first step.
Sure, NASA did this forty years ago with the Mercury capsule.
But this is a guy, with $40,000,000, making a revolutionary craft to go to the edge of space. Private business. A business that will sell tickets. To space.
Anyone have $10,000 to spare for a ticket?
And it's a first step. NASA followed this same progression. Sub-orbital, orbital, moon.
If private business makes it to the moon, that would be the most amazing thing ever.
I grew up on Heinlein. Heinlein was all about colonizing space... all using believable technology (not this warp drive crap).
I lived and breathed space as a kid, and it looked like we were making great progress.
And then the space program essentially stalled for thirty years or so.
My whole damn life, it seems. Stuck. What progress they made, and they did make progress, just wasn't inspirational, wasn't the "right stuff".
I hope private industry is able to drive the space efforts forward into new territory. I have some dreams I want fulfilled before I die.
Posted by Edwin at June 21, 2004 11:23 AM