Space Ship One Woohoooooooooo!

umm....did what?

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rutan_scaled_0304187.html

I assume from the lukewarm responses that the flight of civilian spacecraft SpaceShipOne's manned flight into space wasn't as appreciated by others as much as by myself. No matter! This obviously 'mundane to some' event is opening the door to a brand new era in space flight and an advent to adventures and discoveries heretofore only held viable within the government.

A new freedom!!!!! A newly created freedom!

Dang!

Don't you get it? This is a milestone in the history books!!!!



I understand lots of things are more immediately important here on Earth....but.......but.......

I think it's awesome!!!!

Karma Girl..........I salute you!!!! Oh yeah!!

The possibilities are unprecedented!!!!

/me is excited too!

Oh yes, this is definitely an excellent event.

Private spaceflight is *definitely* a good goal. They're almost certainly going to do a much better job of it than the government.

All they need now is warp drive and new uniforms and then we will be going in the right direction.

Well I just read the article, seems that microsoft is involved is this correct, I saw info on Paul Allen, please don't tell me microsoft wants to dominate space now...?

I think it was China that had promised to have a casino in space by the year 2006. Now I know how we are gonna get there.

All they need now is warp drive and new uniforms and then we will be going in the right direction.

No red shirts, please!

DWatson,

Paul Allen is indeed a major investor, but I don't really think that's going to be a cause for concern. While he made his money at Microsoft, it doesn't look like he's doing this *for* Microsoft.

Commercial spaceflight isn't likely to be limited to one player (there's quite a few in contest for the X-Prize). The likely first applications of commercial spaceflight will be orbital launches, probably mostly satelites and such, and that probably not for at least a few years. There will most likely be some competition in the field.

This link goes to a little opinion piece that gives a good point of view why this flight is so important.

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/006256.html

Without government intervention, the possibilities are endless. Also more likely to succeed.

IMHO - It looks a hell of a lot safer also

paul allen made his bucks co-founding microsoft with gates.. he's got a lot of money, but his interest in this, as in other things, is purely.. educational, you could say? he's been involved in some other experimental stuff, not related to computers.. his role in this is non-microsoft.

i'd say this endeavor is a step in a good direction, but there is no cause for excitement, yet.. unless you're a millionaire with money to blow. the common man won't be able to afford a flight on this thing for some time.

however from a technology point of view, it is hudge. it was recently recommended to NASA to outsource some of it's goals, and collaborate with outside companies to begin meeting expectations for bush's 'trip to mars'. they simply havn't been able to do everything on their own, and - as seen here - an outside company has finally created a re-usable ship. the russians don't even have that. such a step, in conjunction with the amazing work NASA has done in space experiements and their ability to 'air traffic control' stuff in space, is going to start translating into a lot of new technologies. they simply have to WANT to work with others.

I'm excited about. Mass media coverage was brief, but if you visit the right news sources (http://www.space.com), they've given it the attention it deserves since the beginning of the project. It's definately a significant event in the history of spaceflight. I watched it all on MSNBC's live video stream.

Wow.....that was neat

Mojave Desert, 20 million, and a South African pilot,

See what happens when you throw 20 million dollars at a group of middle aged men going through a mid-life crisis.

Burt Rutan also has plans to do an orbital sortie. It’s in the planning stage now, he calls it 386. His company did make the aeroshell for the Delta Clipper. Umm I wonder…

Paul Allen did start a company at the airfield called Mojave Aerospace, he gets to use technology used on the SpaceShipOne, while Rutan retains the intellectual property.

Kind of makes you think what these big aerospace companies like Lockheed would have charged NASA to do the same thing as SpaceShipOne? 200 million maybe?

My hats off to Scaled Composites, a terrific feat that I hope will open doors for other small companies in the same business, like Xcor. A great accomplishment!!

No red shirts, please!

Unless it's not a uniform.

I have paid lot of attention to this. Asteroids mining won't be too far in the future, and with that, there will be much more resources around.

hehe asteroid mining, cool.
I hope they make the ships look cool, not just with the glossy white fragile look.

Hum... I'm not so excited about this, actually.

I thought that only governements could go in space? Isn't there sort of a law or someything about that?
I am NOT looking forward to that day when any idiot can go put his trash into orbit around the earth.  I've heard that it's already starting to be a mess out there...

Really, I'm fine with having only the governement going into space...

Didnt the guy who invented the buzz lightyear toy built his own rocket and was suppose to go up in space and back this year?
They play that story often on Daily Planet on Discovery channel.
+ the makers of Quake the game also are building a 1 man ship.

wow. i wunna make my own ship. who's with me? come on, it can be the Wincustomize ship.. and it'll have animated wings.

hmmm I could help but we are mostly designers unless you could get an engineer on the team then that would be a good start

Woohoo indeed Mrs_footsie_, woohoo indeed. And the adventures are just now starting.....if Vogons don't come through with their Hyperspace byway we just might go where humanity has not gone before. >

I'm sorry guys to burst your bubbles, but it's very unlikely that you'll see interstelar travel in private owned spaceships in your lifetime.  Most likely, private spacecrafts will be used to launch private satellites, and htat's where I'm not too happy about this.   Our sky is already a dump, from what I read, we hardly need the opportunity for anyone to send his own private crap up there.