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An article on SpaceShipOne
Rocket ship loops into space -- and glides home safely
First privately financed spaceflight -- 'Yeeee-haw!'
Mojave, Kern County -- The era of privately financed manned spaceflight began over the high desert here early Monday with a bumpy 88-minute voyage that sent a shuttlecock- shaped rocket plane and its pilot 62.2 miles up out of the atmosphere and safely home in a setting that felt more like a rock concert than a space mission.
For the most part, a good article. But then a former NASA engineer named Dr. Bruce Murray chimes in with this:
For that reason, Murray said, rockets like SpaceShipOne might end up being viable largely as tourist attractions for those wealthy and fit enough to afford brief journeys into space on their vacations.
"It's like going to Mt. Everest," he said. "If there is a market here, it is for adventure touring, in my opinion."
Hello? What was the commercial value of the Wright Flyer? Of Eniac? Of the very first steam-powered horseless carriage? All were odd, didn't fit the current paradigm, and took time to find their markets. It took time for flight to evolve from the rickety Wright Flyer buzzing along above the dunes to the L1011 and SR-71!
This is just another of our tentative first steps, there will be more.
Now I need a copy of Jordin Kare's "Bloody Bastards" on mp3.
First privately financed spaceflight -- 'Yeeee-haw!'
Mojave, Kern County -- The era of privately financed manned spaceflight began over the high desert here early Monday with a bumpy 88-minute voyage that sent a shuttlecock- shaped rocket plane and its pilot 62.2 miles up out of the atmosphere and safely home in a setting that felt more like a rock concert than a space mission.
For the most part, a good article. But then a former NASA engineer named Dr. Bruce Murray chimes in with this:
For that reason, Murray said, rockets like SpaceShipOne might end up being viable largely as tourist attractions for those wealthy and fit enough to afford brief journeys into space on their vacations.
"It's like going to Mt. Everest," he said. "If there is a market here, it is for adventure touring, in my opinion."
Hello? What was the commercial value of the Wright Flyer? Of Eniac? Of the very first steam-powered horseless carriage? All were odd, didn't fit the current paradigm, and took time to find their markets. It took time for flight to evolve from the rickety Wright Flyer buzzing along above the dunes to the L1011 and SR-71!
This is just another of our tentative first steps, there will be more.
Now I need a copy of Jordin Kare's "Bloody Bastards" on mp3.
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That is, I am so excited, even though it's 40 years after the Air Force was working on the same damn thing before the funding was cut.
The first Wright Flyer test went, what, the wing span of a 747? Or, to quote Franklin (probably), what's the use of a newborn baby?
I am *so* excited.