.

Saw it earlier. It was a pretty decent show. I liked the videos of the rocket powered part of the flights. Man, that would be one helluva ride, that's for sure. I'll be old and grey before the price comes down to where regular folk could afford it ($10-20k each). Definitely something to tell the grand kids about though.

What kills me is that we have just seen a milestone of space travel happen, and It was such a small blip on the general publics screen. Burt Rutan is one hell of a designer! I'd like to meet him some day.....


Tall Shadow

Spaceships are for douche bags.

Everyone who is anyone knows that Flying Unicorns, bred and raised by me, are the new wave of space and intergalactic travel.

Coming next year: Leprecahns that shave your ball and ass hair so it doesn't feel like your shitting through a mesh net anymore!!

Quoted: Spaceships are for douche bags. Everyone who is anyone knows that Flying Unicorns, bred and raised by me, are the new wave of space and intergalactic travel. Coming next year: Leprecahns that shave your ball and ass hair so it doesn't feel like your shitting through a mesh net anymore!!

I got dibbs on the first model!!!

I was Digging around On the Nasa Site To see what They had to say about space ship one And they only had one small artilcle and I really had to dig for it.  

btw, did you guys notice the fine resolution of the US Airforce radar footage...you could see the shape of the craft from the radar, wings fusalage and all. I had no idea that radar could be that effective to where you could visually ID what kind of plane it was.

Cool shit

Quoted: I was Digging around On the Nasa Site To see what They had to say about space ship one And they only had one small artilcle and I really had to dig for it.

Not fond of the competition, perhaps?

This is huge, and is only the beginning.  The Bigelow Prize for orbital flight has been announced at $50 million, and the X Cup prizes will no doubt reach into the millions as well.

Me and my associates will be fielding an X Cup entry in 2006 or 2007.  

We will be looking for a software engineer and a copywriter/publicist sometime in 2005, I'll post it here first in case any fellow gun nuts are interested.

Investors are welcome too.  I'll be putting forth about $100k toward this, but I will need much more.

It's a great achievment. I can't imagine something like that happening anywhere else but the USA. It needed the people to put up the money for the prize, a rich guy to fund the winning project, a big aerospace infrastructure, and a bunch of guys like Rutan and the rocket vendor, and the companies they put together. It wasn't enough to just have big companies that did aerospace--you needed guys who had launched their own companies. Not just one company, but a whole series of companies like that. And top-flight guys who were willing to sign on with those small companies straight out of college rather than go work for a giant company like boeing or LockMart.

I can't imagine something like that happening in France.

Paul Allen reportedly invested about $22 Million in the entire program.  Including all launches, engineering, etc.  Everything.

ONE Space Shuttle launch costs about $550 million.  Wow.

Quoted: Paul Allen reportedly invested about $22 Million in the entire program.  Including all launches, engineering, etc.  Everything. ONE Space Shuttle launch costs about $550 million.  Wow.

Yea, but how are they gonna recoup all that money? Seems nearly impossible at only $10k per passenger...they would have to fly 2000 passengers not to mention the operating cost of each flight.

But it was probably more just to prove a point- not to make money.

Well, they won $10 million - the X Prize.  

I figure Paul Allen could care less about the twentysomething million.  However, this whole enterprise should be self-sustaining.  Each team has a strategy for that, and their technical solution is set up to exploit that strategy.  

I believe Scaled Composites' strategy was just to be altruistic and forge a path that other could follow.  Rutan is an engineering god, and his talents are a benefit to us all.

Also, I think Branson of Virgin Atlantic (Virgin Galactic) said he was going to charge something like $100k a pop to start with.

Paul Allen is a great guy.  He could have taken $20M and tossed it to the Russkies for a ride on the Soyuz, but instead donated that money to humanity so we all might have a chance to experience space.  

I am 100% certain I will be going to space in my lifetime.  Prior to SpaceShipOne, I was not so sure.

I watched that tonight.


I recall getting a lump in my throat during a couple of points.



"I've lost the TINU..."

...fuck it, let's go...




Car tires and laughing gas, man. Fucking incredible.