First Private Space Flight - SUCCESS

[Falstaff]

The first privately financed, developed, and executed space flight occurred successfully today, albeit a very brief trip. Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne reached space and returned to Earth successfully after taking off in the Mojave desert (at the future site of the Mojave Desert Spaceport). It is an amazing feat in the world of space travel/exploration, and is especially good news now (along with the other recent X-Prize developments) with NASA's problems. You can find links and many insightful, and some not, comments at Slashdot. (http://slashdot.org/articles/04/06/21/1412228.shtml?tid=134&tid=160) What does everyone here think about the recent X-Prize developments and the state of spaceflight in general now? There have to be a few other space fans in this forum....

[Fishie]

Impresive.

I have no doubt that if an International agency had started something like this we would have lower space comercial aircrafts by now and way cheaper ways of delivering payloads into orbit etcetera.

Mmmm flying from any point in the world to any other point in about an hour.

Would be sweet.

[GoldKey]

Renewed my hope that I will be able to go into space before I die!

[buckyg]

It's renewed my hope that space exploration won't die.

[Steven Cedrone]

This is awesome! With private companies now in the game, NASA might actually get their act together! I wonder if they plan on hauling satellites, etc? I too would love to get a ride into space before I die! :wink:

Steve

[Falstaff]

I have no doubt that if an International agency had started something like this we would have lower space comercial aircrafts by now and way cheaper ways of delivering payloads into orbit etcetera.

If you mean an international organization made up of the space agencies of various governments, I doubt it would have done anything significant. As an example, look at all the problems with the ISS. The Russians don't have the money, the Chinese aren't a part (granted they joined the space group late, but they are an example of political rivalries), the Europeans don't have their own version of the Shuttle/Soyuz so they can't get their parts to space without US/Russian help (as far as I know). Plus, the country providing most of the parts, money, and astronauts (at least before the Columbia disaster) is the US, and NASA's budget isn't that great any more.

Privitizing space is a great way to go. There will be competition, and also, with multiple groups launching into space, the facilities issue will be resolved (the Mojave Spaceport) and possibly the costs of manufacturing the crafts, fuel, and other neccessary items for space flight will drop as demand increases. And if governments oversee the spaceflight sector like they do with the airline industry (via agencies like the FAA in the US) the industry will have safety requirements. Who knows, maybe in 30 years it will be like in 2001: A Space Odyssey (hopefully it won't be like Airplane 2). I can't wait to see how space travel develops now.

[milkman dan]

I would have LOVED to see mr.DOOM3's team to win, but regardless this is quite the accomplishment!