The 5-year-old space age

Posted: Friday, June 19, 2009 6:30 PM by Alan Boyle

Spaceport America

Virgin Galactic's White Knight Two carrier airplane flies over New Mexico's Las
Cruces International Airport on Saturday, showing off its dual-fuselage design.

Five years after the private-sector space age began, rocketeers are taking circuitous routes to turn their spaceship dreams into reality. And the pioneers of the age say that's just as it should be.

The Space Age, with capital letters, dates back more than 50 years to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1 on Oct. 4, 1957. That marked the first time an artificial satellite was put into orbit. The 5-year-old space age I'm talking about dates back to June 21, 2004, when the SpaceShipOne rocket plane became the first privately developed craft to carry a civilian astronaut into outer space.

When SpaceShipOne flew, some observers thought regular folks would be going on day trips to outer space within just a year or two. Indian-American millionaire Chirinjeev Kathuria, who helped extend the life of Russia's Mir space station in 2000 and now serves as chairman of the PlanetSpace rocket venture, certainly thought so.

"When the industry started out, I think everyone - including ourselves - were naive in saying we could do this in 12 months or 24 months," Kathuria acknowledged. "I think everyone's becoming more realistic. That's why no one is saying, 'OK, we're going to do it this year or next year' anymore."

Other observers were far less optimistic, even back in 2004. Millionaire investment adviser Dennis Tito, who became the first paying passenger to visit the international space station in 2001, told me five years ago that "it may take many decades" for private industry to create passenger spacelines.

Virgin Galactic

SpaceShipTwo designer Burt Rutan peeks out from one of the rocket plane's
windows during construction at Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif.

The most realistic time frame for suborbital space tourism seems to have come from aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, who famously designed SpaceShipOne on a restaurant napkin and is now leading the development effort for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo at Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif.

"We at Scaled are very aware and proud of what we did five years ago," Rutan told me in an e-mail. "Memory fails me of what I was predicting would happen, so I did a Google search and came up with a podcast that had a prediction."

Rutan pointed to a speech he gave at the Academy of Achievement in 2004, 10 days before SpaceShipOne's first sally into space. "At the end of the pitch I predicted that the public would be able to buy tickets for a spaceflight 'about 10 to 12 years from now.'"

Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic are on track to beat that schedule, even if SpaceShipTwo's first commercial flight doesn't come until 2012 or later.

Virgin Galactic

Burt Rutan takes a seat inside SpaceShipTwo's fuselage during construction.

"There is a lot of activity at Scaled right now on manned spaceflight," Rutan said. "Not a large number of folk working, but very impressive hardware being developed and tested for Virgin. We all know how important the work is, and our team has a passion for the goal of providing public access to the black sky view of our planet."

Small steps
Some small steps were taken toward the fulfillment of Rutan's prediction on Friday: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and other dignitaries gathered at Spaceport America to break ground for the multimillion-dollar space terminal that's being built for Virgin Galactic's operation. Richardson said the groundbreaking ceremony was "an important step toward our goal of being at the forefront of a vibrant new commercial space industry."

Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn provided the latest word on SpaceShipTwo's time line. After the ceremony, he told me in a phone call that the rocket plane would have its unveiling and first unpowered glide test in December. Dec. 7 has been reported as the target date, but Whitehorn said it's too early to pencil that into the appointment book.

He said he expected SpaceShipTwo's first rocket-powered test flight past the 100-kilometer-high space boundary to take place within 12 to 13 months after its unveiling. The test flights would be conducted in Mojave, but he expected the first $200,000-a-seat commercial flight to take place in New Mexico (with Virgin's billionaire founder Richard Branson on board). That milestone would most likely come in the 2011-2012 time frame.

Whitehorn emphasized that the schedule was dependent on how the test program proceeds. Unlike the superpowers who started the Space Age, the SpaceShipTwo team feels no pressure to run a space race. "We're in a 'race' with only one thing - a race with safety," Whitehorn told the crowd in New Mexico.

The safety theme was brought home when the carrier aircraft for SpaceShipTwo, known as White Knight Two, set out from its Mojave base to fly over the New Mexico ceremony. En route, an indicator light came on, forcing a diversion to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport for a safety check.

Scaled later reported that a speedbrake actuator had failed during the descent for the flyover. To make up for the no-show, White Knight Two flew over New Mexico's Las Cruces International Airport during the return trip to Mojave on Saturday. Even though it didn't turn out exactly as planned, the excursion marked White Knight Two's first round-trip, point-to-point journey.

Spaceport America

White Knight Two makes a pass over Las Cruces International Airport on Saturday.

The rocket report
Here's a fifth-anniversary status report on five other suborbital ventures that have been active in the "New Space" age. If I'm missing anyone, please feel free to fill me in by leaving a comment below.

Blue Origin: You don't hear much from New Space's most secretive player, but it's virtually certain that the venture - backed by Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos - will start commercial spaceflights by 2010 as originally envisioned. In February, Bezos told talk-show host Charlie Rose that Blue Origin was working on its second test vehicle, and that there would be at least one more test vehicle after that.
PlanetSpace: Kathuria's venture lost out on NASA funding for a space station resupply rocket, and lost an appeal of that decision as well. But Kathuria told me PlanetSpace was still "looking for opportunities" at NASA, and is also seeking Pentagon funding for the development of an unmanned aerial vehicle. That vehicle would be a quarter-scale version of PlanetSpace's Silver Dart space glider design. "After the UAV is proven and built out, we'd eventually use that vehicle for point-to-point space tourism," Kathuria said. He's grown increasingly realistic over the past five years: "Building launch vehicles and spacecraft is not an easy process," Kathuria said. "It's a difficult process, and it a very capital-intensive process."
Rocketplane Global: The Oklahoma-based company says it has been hit hard by the current economic downturn but is still working out the plans for development of its rocket plane as well as spaceport arrangements. About $100 million is needed to turn the plans into reality, Rocketplane's Chuck Lauer has been quoted as saying.
Rocket Racing League: The league is working with Armadillo Aerospace to turn two airplanes into rocket-powered racers for a demonstration flight, most likely in November at the Aviation Nation air show at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base. "We're looking at Nellis, and we have other options, too. We're just not in a rush," the league's co-founder and CEO, Granger Whitelaw, told me. The planes won't appear at September's Reno Air Races, as previously hoped. Whitelaw said the league will wait out the downturn before proceeding with plans for competitions. "When the market comes back to us, we'll be there. ... Had we been out there and starting to race right now, we probably would have been in a bad position," he said.
XCOR Aerospace: I've written quite a bit about XCOR's step-by-step approach to spaceflight. At last report, XCOR is still on target to begin flight tests of its Lynx Mark 1 high-altitude rocket plane next year. This month, The Globe and Mail quoted COO Andrew Nelson as saying about 30 people have paid part or all of the $95,000 fare for a Lynx flight. The Mark 1 is meant to blaze a trail for later flights that will go beyond the outer-space boundary.

Update for 7:20 p.m. ET June 22: I added pictures from Saturday's White Knight Two flyover and updated the text accordingly.

EMAIL THIS

Comments

SmythSpace will still beat them all to the punch...betcha!
The SSII model looks like every other almost spaceship out there to me...duct tape and all.
Tinkering Rocketeers with lotsa $$$ have done their jobs...establishing demand, rules and regs, and creating a presence...good on them.
Unfortunately for them, they discovered that this ain't some lark too late.
Try asking someone who isn't a faithful reader of this site what about Space Tourism...WHAAA?
Tell ol' Will I said Hi!

steve smyth (Sent Friday, June 19, 2009 7:10 PM)

Space X?

[ALAN ADDS: Yes, I thought about adding SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace, and then Orbital Sciences just to be fair, and then maybe Space Adventures, but then I thought I should limit this particular posting to suborbital space ventures. If I get a chance I'll try to add a little more about all these companies in a follow-up comment. But the reason why SpaceX in particular is not included here is because they're looking at strictly orbital flight - and commercial human flight (going beyond COTS-D to take on paying private passengers) is fairly far down the line for them. I did touch upon SpaceX in the New Space posting eariler this week, by the way, and if you want to read all about the prognosis for SpaceX and Orbital, you can check the GAO report on COTS:]

http://gao.gov/products/GAO-09-618

John Canzona, Los Angeles, CA (Sent Friday, June 19, 2009 8:10 PM)

What happened to Space Access?

BillB, St. Pete, FL (Sent Friday, June 19, 2009 8:59 PM)

When are we going to see trips to orbiting space stations and the Moon at prices average "middle class" people can afford?

William Cousert, Murrieta, California (Sent Friday, June 19, 2009 9:26 PM)

I'd love to see the pics, but the link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24526864@N03/3641271495/

sends me to yahoo.

[ALAN ADDS: Golly, I now see that that picture has been made private. Not cool. I will remove that link.]

George Atkinson, Silver City, NM (Sent Friday, June 19, 2009 11:35 PM)

What about spacex? It's by far the most successful venture next to scaled composites (and on a much smaller budget).

Kristoph, Issaquah, WA (Sent Friday, June 19, 2009 11:38 PM)

Where are those DiLithium crystals, Captain!!

David (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:17 AM)

What about Bigelow Aero? They up to anything neat?

Paul, USA (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:32 AM)

Not even a mention of SpaceX? They are one of the biggest and most likely to succeed in the private rocket arena. hello...

Ex Eastcoaster (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 1:02 AM)

Just out of curiosity, is that picture of Burt Rutan sticking his head out of one of the planes windows real, or just Photoshop?

[ALAN ADDS: Ha, I see what you mean... I think it's real, here's the original version from Virgin Galactic Web site. You can see Burt's hand sticking out, too, but the biggest reason I don't think it's photoshopped is because I don't think Virgin would do that.]

http://www.virgingalactic.com/pressftp/content/General%20Images/Burt%20Rutan%20and%20SpaceShipTwo/SpaceShipTwo%20and%20Burt%20Rutan%20out%20of%20pilots%20window.jpg

Dave BC WA (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 1:31 AM)

I just watched the movie Star Treck, and it makes me wonder if we'll ever get that far. Baby steps, NASA, baby steps, that's the key to success! So keep it up!

Juan Sosash, NY (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 2:14 AM)

"The Mark 1 is meant to blaze a trail for later flights that will go beyond the outer-space boundary."

The outer-space boundary? What exactly is the outer-space boundry.

I definately was one of those who thought we would be in space by now. I am actually surprised that they have not yet started tourists flights yet. Although I can imagine that there are a lot of safety concerns when launching civilians miles above the earth :)

[ALAN ADDS: The internationally accepted boundary of space is 100 kilometers in altitude. The Lynx Mark 1 is designed to go to 61 kilometers (38 miles), though it could conceivably go higher with a lighter payload.]

Jeremy, Henderson, NV (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 3:47 AM)

"The SSII model looks like every other almost spaceship out there to me...duct tape and all. "

That's not a model,that's a prototype,and I really doubt that the silver tape on the graphite composite is actually cloth duct tape. Presumably its some sort of sealing tape that's more similar to the metal tape used on ducts. (which oddly enough,is NOT duct tape. Go figure,you would expect that duct tape is actually used on ducts,but its not). Im not really that knowledgable about the specifics of graphite composite construction,but that looks pretty much like pictures of other such construction. (think B2,F117,F22 etc) I have no doubt that SSII will fly. Not only does Scaled have a track record,they are now owned by Northrop. About the only thing I can see that would derail the effort is Virgin deciding to pull out,which does not seem likely.

The other ventures though are different stories. XCOR from what Ive seen seems like a serious company. Blue Origin is a wild card. The simple fact that they are so tight lipped about what they are doing and don't go in for all the hype makes me wonder if they really are serious. On the other hand,maybe that's the idea,instead of hyping like a late night infomercial to get investors,maybe they are using their "serious" and secretive image to woo their investors. Armadillo has a lot of tenacity,but does not seem to be really getting anywhere. The rest of them are just the "also rans"

Michael M, Kent oh (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 7:33 AM)

Most kids have dreams of being a fireman, police officer, and even an astronaut when they grow up. My seven year old doesn't just want to be an astronaut, he is insistent that he will be "the first man on Mars". He's never had the desire for "other employment". You look him dead in the eye and he won't blink about this one. Keep it up folks. By the time your visions and technology have advanced enough in that direction his dream will come true.

- A grateful father

Mark, Manchester, CT (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 7:43 AM)

Cool article Alan! It's interesting how many little startup companies there are trying to get their rocket planes into space. It would be cool if one of these rocket planes could replace the shuttle so that we have the ability to keep building space stations in space. I think any company that succeeds in getting their rocket planes working should be considered winners.

Eric, Salinas, CA (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 9:21 AM)

What sort of experiments could an amateur do to make a contribution?

John Carter (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 9:43 AM)

Disgusting. These people should be focusing on a cure for cancer, instead of this complete of waste of money, time, and brain power on something so useless.

Obama Supporter (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 10:14 AM)

If you want NASA to ever get beyond LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and the ISS - push your senators and representatives to support DIRECT.

www.directlauncher.com

Scott Lazar, PA (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 10:45 AM)

I skimmed the Jeff Bezos video and thought it would be helpful to direct readers directly to the section on Blue Origin between approximately 35:40-38:40. Were there other scenes about Blue Origin in the video?

Smith, Los Angeles, California (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:09 PM)

I am currently developing a Moon Probe leading the way for future satellites of the moon and eventually human moon inhabitants. That not being on a timeframe due to our current projects in the military aspect of life. My website is not fully up but we are working very hard!!!!

Luke Bullard, Sandy, UT (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:17 PM)

"When are we going to see trips to orbiting space stations and the Moon at prices average "middle class" people can afford?"

Patience, grasshopper. You can't expect exotic* new products or services to get major cost-cutting development and economies of scale until the 'early adopters' get out there and show it's worth it. (When did you first see a big LCD TV, and how much was it? How much was a similar sized model when you finally bought one, years later? And that's just television, something you *know* there's a market for. Early automobiles might be a better analogy.) Indeed, I'm annoyed by those who oppose suborbital tourism *because* only the wealthy could afford it (do they have a problem with yachts?) and it shouldn't be done *until* it's down to a five-dollar ride...

* Exotic now, but like anything else, we'll get used to it...

"High Technology is anything invented after you were born."
- Alan Kay

...though I've also seen it phrased; "...anything invented after you were 13 years old.")

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 2:09 PM)

"I just watched the movie Star Treck, and it makes me wonder if we'll ever get that far. Baby steps, NASA, baby steps, that's the key to success! So keep it up!"

NASA? Where'd you see that name in the story? To paraphrase the usual movie credit; "Not one dime of government/tax money was harmed in the production of these vehicles."

The first thing the public must get over is that not only does 'space' not always equal 'NASA,' but not all 'manned space flight' equals NASA (or any other branch of any government) either...

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 2:15 PM)

"...but the biggest reason I don't think it's photoshopped is because I don't think Virgin would do that."

Or even need to. The first SS2 body has been in the works for some time now. Posing in it would be no biggie.

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 2:19 PM)

Well beam me a 2x4 Scotty....

flyndmc (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 6:05 PM)

Michael M...it's metallized fabric tape, which provides a seal when applying the inner mesh fabric to hold the pieces together...keeps the goo from squishing out through the seams when tabs are applied.
I confess to using the term DUCT tape for its impact value...but...let's face it...it's duct tape.
Also...Scaled has always been a Govt. Contractor...the Northrup connect is a formality.

steve smyth (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 6:23 PM)

Has anyone thought about using balloons to reach a significant altitude? My understanding is that the bulk of the fuel and hence the weight and cost is to reach the first 100,000 feet or so. You would think a helium launch vehicle would be a slower, but cheaper, way to get a craft off the ground.

Bob Ondez (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 9:24 PM)

How fast can a spaceship go? Points of past observation comprising the Higgs Field are not the observer, only the body of the observer.

O=E=W(wp=SxT){a}T(g=S/T) is the Unified Field Theory.
The equation shows 2 inertial frames of reference (weak & strong) and that Higgs Field is a worm hole. S=space T=time conversion for Ohm's law. O=observer, E=energy, W=weak Force,{a} replaces = between weak force and strong force and is weak force asymmetry time (un-weighted) added to strong force. wp=weak pressure is observer (weight) gravity relative to weak force. g=gravity in strong force (collective) Add weak force asymmetry to Newton’s law and it corrects moon's orbit. Prove this wrong if you can. The weak force is the Higgs mass in oscillation and found in the DNA's gene ensemble instance location. O=E=mc2. No observer=no energy. The observer and its weight is the missing link in physics. You can’t be two places at the same time. Points of observation increase exponentially. We are made of frequencies…I am 1,3,5, you are 2,4,6, and the Eggman is 7.9,11. IE, not at the same time....just looks that way. EM>{a}<GAV. Figure it out....time is the key here.
JFH^^

John F. Hendry (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 10:22 PM)

Forget about the price (?!) what's the age limit?

Nieves Rosillo, New York, N.Y. (Sent Saturday, June 20, 2009 10:34 PM)

Alan, you missed the most probable leader in commercial passenger spaceflight; the $20 Billion global aerospace conglomerate that is funding its own robust competition for Branson's Virgin Galactic - EADS/Astrium. They are already building the flight hardware, dont need to raise money from anyone, and have the resources to do it faster than Rutan. http://www.astrium.eads.net/en/families/space-plane-tourism-flight-shuttle

Press to Digitate, Alexandria, VA (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 12:05 AM)

things will began to happen much faster when they put down their computers and pipes and really get down to work -- it takes real "hands on" work to put a thought to practice

jerry w, longstreet, la (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 12:44 AM)

"Disgusting. These people should be focusing on a cure for cancer, instead of this complete of waste of money, time, and brain power on something so useless."-Obama Worshiper.

If the human race doesn't eventually leave the cradle of Earth, a cure for cancer will be irrelevant.

Maddog (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 1:07 AM)

wow!, 5 years old, huh?, I bet NASA is cringing at the site of private persons going to space, it would not be long now that ordinary people would take up the opportune time of this very old dream of your "space brothers"!
I would not be surprise to see handicapped people into space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
who needs a wheelchair in space, it would be pointless in space!, LOL, except on Earth of course!

Scott Houdek (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 1:19 AM)

The SST concordes were a step in the right direction going high enough to see earths curveture. The fares were reasonable and they had desinations that could use that service. But the risk of burning in midair was just too great. That is whats wrong with these new noble pioneers. Its the risk of passengers dying.

john Gale (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 2:59 AM)

I think that unless, Someone comes up with new space ship, with new cheap way unknown to the Gov, and then flys into space. Wthout the Gov finding out until its in space. Until then I think the Gov will never let us go to space! I think its fear of the unknown. people who dont want us in space! And something they dont want us to know!

Mark A. Felkins Sacramento CA (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 3:12 AM)

Dear Mark from Manchester,

Do everything possible to support your son's dreams and I have no doubt that he'll go places that no one has ever gone before. One day he'll do things that will make all of us proud. You're a very lucky parent and your son's a very lucky young man. Happy Father's Day!

Ron, New York, NY (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 4:49 AM)

Hey Obama Supporter:

Did you know that the man you supported for President helped raise NASA's budget for space exploration over ONE BILLION dollars?

So how you like that?

Ron, New York, NY (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 4:55 AM)

It's sexy... but useless. Even the gov't hasn't bothered
with public spaceflight. Public spaceflight serves only the very rich. This is NOT a 2001: A Space Odyssey world...get a grip.

Thomas Ashby (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 5:06 AM)

It just may be that sub-orbital transportation just isn't feasible to serve the masses. We just can't do rockets in such a way to have airlines pursue such a dream. We are stuck with the first 5 miles of atmosphere for global travel.

Thomas Ashby (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 5:11 AM)

The "so-called Obama Supporter" is obviously suffering from "fecalis mentalis."

The "cure for cancer" will not come from pouring lots of money into research, but will come from the peripheral insight from people who think and question their own assumptions (unlike the mental myopia of Obama objectors). [...]

Jym Allyn (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 6:43 AM)

obama supporter, you should be ashamed of yourself. who are you to say they are wasting their time? people everywhere do what they love to do, whether it be a professional athlete to helping cure cancer in children. i don't hear anyone saying that athletes should stop wasting their time throwing the pig skin and start researching cures. just because these people have the intellectual capacity to dream big doesn't mean they should stop what they're doing to find cancer cures. where would this world be if we told our children to quit drawing pictures, quit playing music, quit dreaming? all the inventions we have today are because people dreamed, even in the face of people telling them they were wasting their time.

tj, japan (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 10:00 AM)

Once again, humanity's thirst for knowledge and "excitement" will be its undoing. They haven't even perfected the Boeing yet, or any other commercial jet. And we all know the big black mark that is on the safety record of most commercial and non-commercial jets around the world...

And they can't make this thing 100% safe. They even said they hope to be using this several times a day, which brings the safety factor down a notch.

Although I suppose that's the risk you pay, just foolish considering that they haven't perfected the Jet, and that most of the technology they will be putting into the space rockets will be Boeing. They will still be using outdated technology...

Dan, New York (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 10:09 AM)

"When are we going to see trips to orbiting space stations and the Moon at prices average "middle class" people can afford?"

Uh, never. Most average middle class folks can't afford to send their kids to college or travel ON the earth. What makes you think that they'll be able to afford something like this? Because Virgin Galactic's hype say so? Please!

Scott Marcus (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 10:19 AM)

"Disgusting. These people should be focusing on a cure for cancer, instead of this complete of waste of money, time, and brain power on something so useless."

Hmmm...

You got a problem with spending their *own* money on a venture intended to make more money?

You find it logical to make aerospace people work in oncology?

Trust me, there are plenty of people working on cancer, not just out of altruism, but because there would be plenty of money to be made on that, too...

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 10:52 AM)

Obama supporter, I'm with you. How dare these people spend there money as they please? Don't fear I BO and congress have plans to stop that.

Thomas Paine (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 4:13 PM)

Quote from Obama Supporter: "Disgusting. These people should be focusing on a cure for cancer, instead of this complete of waste of money, time, and brain power on something so useless."

Have you a clue? While you are holding your pants up with the Velcro fastener (NASA) using your power drill (NASA) to fasten that "I love OBAMA" (With the scratch resistant covering (NASA)) picture to your wall, please take some time and investigate all of the medical, scientific and everyday use breakthroughs which have come from NASA and other Space related agencies and technologies.

Have you even bothered to look at what contributions Alen, Branson and other Multi Millionaires / Billionaires have made outside of this venture?

Do you even know how much of the US budget is spent on NASA $17(B)? Its a pittance compared to what is spent on defense $514(B), medicare / medicade $600(B). [...]

Mike Anigua GU (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 5:13 PM)

Dan from New York:

Is your car 100% safe? Are your subways or your railways 100% safe. They haven't even perfected the automobile yet, so stop riding around in one. Talk about an industry with black marks on its safety record... You must walk everywhere you go. Let's just hope that one day you don't get hit by a truck.

And what does Boeing have to do with any of these companies? I get the feeling that your grasp of technology, whether cutting-edge or outdated, is minimal at best.

Is there any form of long-range transportation that's safer than commercial aviation? Just stay on the ground where you belong, and don't worry about the safety of people who have more guts than you do.

Ron, New York, NY (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 8:13 PM)

Thomas Ashby,

There was a time when commercial aviation served only the very rich. How's that looking today? Are you going to tell me that you've never travelled on a commercial aircraft? Or maybe you have, but only because you're a multi-millionaire.

And what does the government have to do with "public spaceflight?" How many "public airlines" does the government run? Would they be doing this in order to turn a profit or just out of the goodness of their hearts?

If the objective is to turn a profit then that's the domain of private enterprise. Welcome to America.

Ron, New York, NY (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 8:30 PM)

"It's sexy... but useless."

If it makes money by giving an experience enough people will pay for, it's useful. Don't pretend that any and everything that's done in space is to 'advance the knowledge of mankind.' Satcoms carry the same crappy TV programs as anything else, but the business model works.

"Even the gov't hasn't bothered with public spaceflight."

Nor should it. It's NASA's job (among other things) to advance the aerospace technological state of the art.

(c) The Congress declares that the general welfare of the United States requires that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (as established by title II of this Act) seek and encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space.

(from the NASA Charter, at:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/about/space_act1.html )

It's someone else's job to *do* something with it.

"Public spaceflight serves only the very rich."

1. Why is that a bad thing? Some *not* so rich people will make money from it. (Do you think that everyone who works for a yacht maker is as wealthy as their customers? I imagine the Ford plant worker earns as much on the Lincoln assembly line as the Escort assembly line. But where is he if Lincoln sales go down? Oh, wait...)

2. MANY new technologies start out as high-end, high-cost products or services. If you can't build up demand and economies of scale, they'll never get cheaper. You have patience too, Grasshopper....

"This is NOT a 2001: A Space Odyssey world...get a grip."

And the commercial service to LEO that we saw in the movie didn't spring fully formed from the forehead of Zeus, either (and we don't know how cheap *those* seats were, though some agency seems to have chartered that whole flight, just for Dr. Floyd). It also had to have built up from something more expensive and less sophisticated...

Frank Glover, rochester, NY (Sent Sunday, June 21, 2009 11:13 PM)

I find it ironic that so called liberals (ie Obama Supporter) claim the same territory as neo-Cons. This territory is scientific advancement; remember stem cells? It seems that both of them seem to want to regulate intellectual property and stifle human potential. Here comes the new boss...same as the old boss.

jubal hershaw (Sent Monday, June 22, 2009 4:13 AM)

So these guys are lauded for doing nothing more than putting a guy up for a few minutes on a small airplane LOSING 10's of millions of dollars? If they ever DO get into space - it will be for PURE PROFIT. The only "cargo" they will be lifting up will be you guinea pigs who choose to pay the HUGE costs. All the while NASA is plugging away - lifting 7 astronauts off regularly with payloads - ya know scientific experiments to better humanity - the size of school buses.
C'mon - let's get real. Why have such ZEAL and PASSION for an industry that is PROFIT DRIVEN? Will we ever be like Star Trek? We could be - if our "Federation" decided to spend more than LESS of 1%. I've got a great idea - why not give NASA the DOD budget for 5 years and give the DOD NASA's budget? We'd be much closer to Star Trek than you think.
Or - we could simply have this "haliburton" of the sky nonsense......
Good Luck!

Jason F, Houston, Texas (Sent Monday, June 22, 2009 8:40 AM)

Next >>

SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

Your name, city and state (John Doe, Seattle, Wash.):

Your e-mail address (jdoe@msnbc.com):

Your website (it's okay if you don't have one):

Remember me? (We'll keep it private) Remember me?

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=1971623

More Cosmic Log

Recent Posts:

Archives:

Categories:

Latest Tech & Science News

Syndicate This Site

Add Cosmic Log to your news reader:

ABOUT COSMIC LOG