http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/06/21/suborbital.test/index.html

Let's hope this becomes more common in the latter half of the 00's. To infinity, and beyond!  ;D

Hats off to Dick Rutan and the pilot of the spacecraft.  :) 8) :P

As one commentator observed, they spent 20 billion dollars to win a 10 billion dollar prize.  Hmmm.  What if the price comes down in succeeding years?  How many people do we want to trust with sending humans into space?
Are you ready :o for "Bud's Carpet Cleaning and Communication Satellite Repair Service"?

As one commentator observed, they spent 20 billion dollars to win a 10 billion dollar prize.

Winning the honors of being first, plus offsetting the cost, is probably worth it. It's like government subsidies to start new businesses - if you knew you could get 50% of your initial costs paid back, why not go for it?

It's amazing to think that the boundary of space is only 62.5 miles above us.  It's closer than my in-laws ;D


Indeed. If your car could go straight up, you could drive there in about an hour.

Winning the honors of being first, plus offsetting the cost, is probably worth it. It's like government subsidies to start new businesses - if you knew you could get 50% of your initial costs paid back, why not go for it?


And let's not forget the other money they can make.

Model kits, patents on the various things invented for this flight, appearances by Dick and the crew, images used for posters and other advertising, money from documentaries, money from taking a tour of the spacecraft, airshows, the list goes on and on.

Being a former resident of the Mojave area, I can tell you that the area is very popular with "Space Heads".  If word gets around that one of the Space Shuttles is going to land there, they flock in from hundreds of miles to watch.  And they will do it again when it leaves on the 747 to go back to Florida.  That is the area where they were all built, and 2 streets are named after the shuttles we have lost.

I hope this brings back more interest in space.  I remember the days of the early 1970's, with the Apollo program, US-Soviet joint mission, Skylab, and the Mariner and Viking missions.  Back then, a lot of us felt that the things shown in 2001 might actually happen by that year.  Now 30 years later, it seems even further away, and we have not been back to the moon in longer then a lot of people have been alive.

BTW, am I the only one that remembers that old TV show "Salvage One", and see some similarities?  Although DIck Routan is not Andy Griffith, and SpaceShipOne is not made of junk like Salvage One was, it is still the "first private venture into space".  Shows just how far ahead of it's time that show was.

It's amazing to think that the boundary of space is only 62.5 miles above us.  It's closer than my in-laws ;D

Now that gives me an idea for another great marketing scheme--
Give your in-laws a one way ticket to outerspace!