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Comments · 225

  1. Re:And let's not forget who is funding a lot of th by Will_Malverson · · Score: 2, Informative · on New and Improved SETI

    Also, don't forget that SpaceShipOne was also "A Paul G. Allen Project".

  2. missing links by khrtt · · Score: 2, Insightful · on US to Pay to go to ISS
    these guys

    these guys

  3. Re:This is really bad by Frank+T.+Lofaro+Jr. · · Score: 1 · on Space Station Crew Forced to Cut Calories

    These people will likely beat the US gov't to it. :)

  4. Don't forget India and private companies by hpulley · · Score: 4, Informative · on Energia Reveals New Russian Spacecraft

    India is also looking at lunar and manned programs and already has launched its own satellites, etc. Private entries from the US, Canada and the UK (and other countries) can perhaps be considered separately from the goverment operations. There are now many players, some major (some declining, some expanding) and some minor (some expanding, some perhaps will never get off the ground). Exciting times ahead, I hope.

  5. CMS 5-Axis Gantry Mill by chocolatetrumpet · · Score: 1 · on X-prize Award paid

    Scaled Composites also has a new CMS 5-Axis Gantry Mill.

    How fucking cool is that?

  6. Re:Well ya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative · on China Plans 5-day Manned Space Mission

    And I'm also certian that the US didn't just complete the first non-government manned space flight and doesn't have billions of dollars going to develop private space flight.

    Virgin is a British company, not a USA company.

  7. Re:China needs to join the ISS by mcrbids · · Score: 2, Insightful · on China Plans 5-day Manned Space Mission

    we don't need another Cold War style space race

    Except that the 1960/1970's era cold war won't happen again. Power in the 1960/1970s was concentrated into the US govt and the USSR govt.

    Today, there's too much distributed power.

    I watched an old James Bond movie not too long ago with my kids. In one scene, the phone rings in the car, and Bond goes to answer it.

    My teen children, watching, had no idea that was even unusual, since between my wife, myself, and my household, we have 6 phone numbers, two of them cellular! (work phone, home phone, home-office phone, my cell, wife cell)

    I had to explain to them how COOL that was back in 1980 when the movie first came out!

    Nowadays, it's not NASA vs USSR space, it's NASA, USSR, China, ID Sofware, Scaled Composites, the EU space consortium, etc.

    In short, the days of the two-sided pissing match are over. Power is distributing, as it does with technology, and the rules today are fundamentally different.

    Nowadays, it's damn hard for the Bond franchise to find technologies cool enough for the next Bond movie. Recently, they've all but stopped trying.

  8. Well ya by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Funny · on China Plans 5-day Manned Space Mission
    There certianly aren't any US companies that make high technology.

    And I'm also certian that the US didn't just complete the first non-government manned space flight and doesn't have billions of dollars going to develop private space flight.

    Give me a break.

    China is emerging as an ecenomic powerhouse, and it looks like it will continue down that path, provided their government doesn't screw up. However please don't pretend like all good things come from China. I gave just a small list of the US companies that produce advanced hardware, including what drives almost all the devices you listed. Your MP3 player may be built in China but it's usually using TI DSPs and AD opamps.

    You know it's perfectly possible for China AND the US to be economic powers, and for both to benefit from trade with each other.

  9. The next step? Local or Long Distance? by TFloore · · Score: 4, Interesting · on What's Next in the New Private Space Industry?
    If you want local travel, such as your stated flight to Austalia... SpaceShipOne really isn't what you want. It isn't designed for that, at least not the current incarnation. Look here http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/logs-WK-SS1 .htm and you'll see a bit about its specs... Mach 2.9 with a 76 second rocket burntime. Now, if you could hold that Mach 2.9, you'd get from L.A. to Sydney in closer to 3 hours than the current 15. But it isn't made for this. And, frankly, as long as they are seeing dollar signs from selling 200 seconds of freefall at barely-in-space, don't expect it.

    So, really, what you want is a local use of long distance development.

    And that, really, means to move from "barely enters space" on to the harder things... in order, that would be
    • LEO (230 miles)
    • Geo-stationary (22,000 miles)
    • lunar/lagrange (250,000 miles)
    • inter-planetary

    Each of those steps gets progressively harder. But, for your uses... once LEO becomes economical, your trip from L.A. to Sydney is just a modification of a LEO orbital insertion.

    LEO is closer to 230 miles high, instead of the current 60 miles high. It's a serious difference, and, from what I've read, SpaceShipOne isn't really designed for that. I'm not bashing Rutan and his people, they made a well-designed craft for the purpose it was designed, which, unfortunately, has nothing to do with going into orbit.

    But then, give them a few years of income from people willing to pay $200K for "Oh! I got in space for 3 minutes!" and they'll be working on the next level, which is that hotel in LEO you've probably already heard about. And then they (or someone else) will start thinking about hotels on the moon, and you'll get another level of development.

    If you want to make this commercial, forget about science as a driving factor. It will be economics and Return On Investment, and for the next 10-20 years that's going to mean "silly" tourism. Profitable, but not terribly useful, other than for funding development towards stages that will be useful. If we're lucky, when the LEO hotel becomes a reality, some space will be devoted to science, but it will probably be purely for PR purposes.

    Remember also that this was never planned for heavy-lift capabilities, which limits the scientific usefulness, because scientific gear for space tends to be heavy.

    People mention asteroid mining, but I'm not so sure that will happen any time in the next 50 years. It would be nice, I admit... but it's not even needed until we get some good space construction capabilities, and even then you have the moon to play around with first. There's plenty of resources on the moon, and getting them off is easy, as long as it's just cargo... Mass drivers built to barely exceed lunar escape velocity gets you processed packages in orbit for easy pickup, and not nearly the miles required to go snag an asteroid... even the closer ones inside the orbit of Mars. Remember, it's not just getting there... it's getting there with something you can use to move the thing back to a useful orbit close to Earth. That's a whole different level of complexity and difficulty. What do you use to move something that masses 100 million tons, anyway? That's about what an asteroid 1/2 mile in diameter will mass. (Aircraft carriers are less than 100,000 tons, oil super tankers around 250,000 tones.) Or do you want to set up an outpost there? (And you thought corporate-owned mining towns in the US Old West were bad...)
  10. Re:Frustrated by the (lack) of coverage. by khallow · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize
    The first two flights proved that. Well, maybe not the shoe-string budget part. It did cost what, $25 million dollars, about as much as it cost the government to do it back in the stone ages?

    You must be refering to the X-15. Here's a blurb on its costs:

    Given the magnitude of its objectives, as well as the vehicle's sheer complexity, the total development time of five years from project approval to first powered flight (and two years from construction start) is quite impressive. The estimated costs of the program appear similarly modest, particularly when compared to the space-related projects that followed. The program's total cost, including development and eight years of operations are usually estimated at $300 million in 1969 dollars. Each flight is estimated to have cost $600,000. [24]

    [footnote for 24]

    24. See "Comparing the X-15 and Space Shuttle Programs." It is important to keep in mind, however, that although these figures appear nominal by the standards of the current space program, they were far in excess of the program's original estimates. The issue of X-15 cost overruns will be discussed further below.

    So X-15 cost $300 million in 1969 dollars while Spaceship One cost $25 million and has already earned $10 million in prize money and is licensed to the Virgin Group (and could be worth up to $21.4 million over the next 15 years). Let's not forget merchandizing.

    Oh, I think you misunderstood. My "or" was meant to be an "exclusive or". In my opinion this event is shifting the control of space flight from the government to large corporations. Personally, I'd rather have governments in control than large corporations. At least I can vote for the government.

    Ok, that makes more sense. I don't see why government should be better. Just because I can vote and have a little power doesn't mean that I get more benefit. After all, I can purchase shares in a corporation if I wish to get a similar level of power, right?

    And how does this make my life any better? I get my Nintendo games 25 hours earlier? Again, the benefit is to the rich, the ones who can afford to pay for this. Because there's no way this type of travel is going to be cheaper than the 20-30 hour method.

    Hypothetical example. You need a new kidney and are currently living on machine (highly unpleasant from what I hear). Someone in India who happens to be compatible with you dies in a car accident. Within six hours, one of those kidneys is in you.

    It's not a need (until we destroy the earth). It's a luxury.

    Ok, so it's a "luxury". What does that mean? It means that you don't need those people in space. I on the other hand see it as a need because I consider space development crucial to the long term survival of the human race, which I consider a very important need. Those rich people are going to create an economy in space which will eventually pull humanity into space. I accept that it's not as important to you. That works for me.

    Well, my thought was that this was true because the Earth's resources are not infinite. But, if we really can come up with cheap, safe transportation into space, then we could probably get enough resources from space to outweigh this. Nuclear power plants on the moon, anyone? Solar panels at the least...

    You see some of the advantages of space. Earth's resources are finite, space resources are still finite but a bunch of orders of magnitude larger. There's more energy, more matter, and a lot more space in space. Plus, pollution of the kind on Earth just isn't a problem in space. Littering will be the worst kind of pollution and because it will have a direct economic impact, it will be addressed. On Earth, if I pollute, it's not

  11. Excellent by tm2b · · Score: 1 · on NASA's Giant Pinhole Camera

    Let's get NASA out of the business of basic space access and back into the basic research without economic incentive that wouldn't be done otherwise.

    Ferrying people and objects to space should be a commercial or military activity, instead of NASA trying to be all things to all people

  12. Re:Summer Vacation In Outer Space by c.derby · · Score: 4, Informative · on SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize

    actually, he's not... Mike Melville is South African. Binnie is ex-U.S. Navy.

    Pilot bios: http://scaled.com/projects/tierone/info.htm

  13. Re:Summer Vacation In Outer Space by jmichaelg · · Score: 2, Insightful · on SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize
    After all, today's flight's pilot, Brian Binnie, is a South African.

    I think perhaps you're thinking of Michael Melville who was born in South Africa and became a U.S. citizen back in the 70's. Binnie, did his college work at Brown and Princeton and learned to fly jets at Patuxent Naval Air Base and spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy. Though the Navy has been known to train foreign nationals, it's more likely that Binnie is an American.

  14. Re:Summer Vacation In Outer Space by Mad+Alchemist · · Score: 3, Insightful · on SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize

    Much as I hate to nitpick (and at the risk of obscuring your point), Binnie seems to be American from birth. You're thinking of Mike Melvill, who piloted the last couple of flights.

  15. Re:Summer Vacation In Outer Space by Mad+Alchemist · · Score: 3, Insightful · on SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize

    Much as I hate to nitpick (and at the risk of obscuring your point), Binnie seems to be American from birth. You're thinking of Mike Melvill, who piloted the last couple of flights.

  16. Re:Microsoft Money does something cool for a chang by Danny+Rathjens · · Score: 3, Informative · on SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize

    Their navigation display did actually flake out while the rocket was firing three flights ago; the pilot said he just kept going since with his head straight forward he could see the earth out of the corner of his eye and knew he was still going up.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne_flight_1 4P
    http://scaled.com/projects/tierone/logs-WK-SS1.htm

  17. Re:Congrats! by wjwlsn · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne to Attempt Second Flight on Monday

    Remember Virgin's agreement to license the technology.

    "London, September 27th 2004: Today, Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin Group has entered into an agreement to license the technology to develop the world's first privately funded spaceships dedicated to carrying commercial passengers on space flights... The licensing deal with M.A.V. could be worth up to £14 million ($21.5 million) over the next fifteen years depending on the number of spaceships built by Virgin."

    http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/092704_scal ed_paul_allen_virgin_galactic.htm

  18. Re:Space Elevators.... by Karora · · Score: 1 · on Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures

    50,000 feet is certainly doable in a plane - not that much higher than where a commercial international flight gets to.

    And there are things that will get to 60 miles without too much trouble...

  19. Re:Moller by mystkdragon · · Score: 1 · on A Flying Leap for Cars?
    Now if they can just figure out how to combine this with SpaceShipOne, you might just have something.
    Could this be the evolution towards the 'subwarp' engine and the 'warp drive' as seperate entities on a 'space' vehicle?

    Sorry, let me put my rubber Vulcan ears back in the box where I thought I buried them....

  20. Re:Great news! by sublum · · Score: 0 · on NASA Provides Results Of Scramjet Test
    To get to the point, would it be possible to return in a glide or powered flight without the requirement of a heat shield?


    Not sure if it's nearly as high-altitude a vehicle as you were thinking for, but regarding Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, it feathers its tail up, for gliding in from about a 100 KM altitude

    As for the weight of the wings, I've read that Scaled has developed a technique of making the wing as one single carbon composite body, structurally sound and not as heavy as a wing ribbed-up with a metal airframe.
  21. Re:Great news! by sublum · · Score: 0 · on NASA Provides Results Of Scramjet Test
    To get to the point, would it be possible to return in a glide or powered flight without the requirement of a heat shield?


    Not sure if it's nearly as high-altitude a vehicle as you were thinking for, but regarding Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, it feathers its tail up, for gliding in from about a 100 KM altitude

    As for the weight of the wings, I've read that Scaled has developed a technique of making the wing as one single carbon composite body, structurally sound and not as heavy as a wing ribbed-up with a metal airframe.
  22. Re:Great news! by sublum · · Score: 0 · on NASA Provides Results Of Scramjet Test
    To get to the point, would it be possible to return in a glide or powered flight without the requirement of a heat shield?


    Not sure if it's nearly as high-altitude a vehicle as you were thinking for, but regarding Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, it feathers its tail up, for gliding in from about a 100 KM altitude

    As for the weight of the wings, I've read that Scaled has developed a technique of making the wing as one single carbon composite body, structurally sound and not as heavy as a wing ribbed-up with a metal airframe.
  23. Re:Woot for canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative · on Canadian Arrow Completes Drop Test

    Uhhh, isn't Scaled launching Sept. 29?

    http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/index.htm

  24. Re:Laughing all the way to the bank? by Idarubicin · · Score: 1 · on Van Allen Questions Human Spaceflight
    Recognition is very nice, but it doesn't pay any bills. Ultimately, you have to have a product.

    Scaled Composites sells a number of products and services. If they want to justify charging premium prices for aerospace design, testing, and custom fabrication, then building the world's only privately owned and operated manned spaceship is an excellent marketing stunt.

    True, they're not selling spacecraft right now--but I'll wager the rest of their company is making a mint from the publicity. General Motors doesn't build NASCAR engines to make money--they build them for publicity.

  25. It's finally come to this... by east+coast · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Plans for International Space Station Cut Back

    Thank God for Scaled Composites. Laugh if you want by this type of Washington dickering may very well setup the type of environment we need to bring more private industry into the picture.

    It's just a shame that some of NASA's problems are probably nothing more than politics over practicality.

  26. Re:Well, posting the contract revenues WAS a scam by appleLaserWriter · · Score: 1, Informative · on Red Hat Vs. The Lawyers

    Also, even after fall, Red Hat trades at 133 P/E, which is way overvalued even for this sector (MSFT, for example, is at 40.59).

    RedHat is an open-source oriented technology company. Microsoft is a cash heavy mutual fund with broad investment across the technology industry. Redhat's multiple reflects investors optimism in RedHat's volatility and future business potential. Microsoft's lower multiple reflects its more stable and mature business model.

    Put in other terms, Microsoft is as much like Redhat as Boeing is like Scaled Composites.

  27. Re:Interesting yes, amazing, no by roman_mir · · Score: 1 · on DIY Cruise Missile Designer Turns Freelance

    Bruce, how about contacting these people: Scaled and offering them your services as a missile specialist? They have the launch vehicle capable of going 100 km high, but their design will not allow them to accelerate this vehicle to a Low Earth Orbit. Now, if you could build a missile for them and this missile was brought with their launch vehicle 100km up, you could then possibly launch a satellite with your missile.

    So Scaled would be able to put small satellites into orbit, I am sure there is market out there for this. BTW., if you guys ever need a programmer (Assembler for Atmel controllers, 86/87, C, C++, Java, J2EE, etc.) I would love to join the team.

    Well, good luck!

  28. And without co-op students, no less! by westendgirl · · Score: 4, Funny · on SpaceshipOne's Control Problem Fixed

    According to Scaled's Careers page, "We are sorry but Scaled is unable to hire Summer interns or Co-op students." I didn't think any high tech companies could cope without co-ops and interns!

  29. Spaceflight video, with floating M&Ms! by FleaPlus · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Photos Of Rutan's X-Prize Entry

    As many of you know, the pilot of SpaceShipOne released a bunch of M&M's near the top of his historic spaceflight. Scaled just recently released video of the launch, which includes chase plane and in-cockpit views. The floating M&M's are near the end. It's incredibly cool to watch -- one of the M&M's flies right by the camera! This video doesn't have sound, as I believe the "full" version is licensed for an upcoming Discovery Channel special.

    I wonder if Mars, Inc. is going to try to license that video for a commercial.

  30. Re:Last year called... by RedWizzard · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Photos Of Rutan's X-Prize Entry
    Who, exactly is wondering what Burt Rutan is up to? I mean, I realize that not everybody cares about spaceflight, but I promise that anybody who knows who Burt Rutan IS could hardly have missed the 2010 recent news stories about what he is up to. I guess unless they are a slashdot editor...
    What's worse is that the pictures are all just ripped off the Scaled Composites site's photo gallery. What is the point of this article exactly? Just to reward some guy for a bit of copyright infringement?
  31. Other stuff to see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant · on Photos Of Rutan's X-Prize Entry

    Here is some other stuff of interest about it until (if?) the server gets back on its feet:

    http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/

    Someone else posted it farther up, yes, I know. But I kept missing it because the way it's posted it looks like it's part of a sig.

  32. Re:Servers dead already by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Informative · on Photos Of Rutan's X-Prize Entry

    it still works, sort of. stupid still, posting a link to a gallery site. INTO A SLIDESHOW on a gallery..

    nice pics anyways..

    http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/ the official page has some stuff too like a video clip..

  33. Re:To the Moon, Alice by ChowyChow · · Score: 3, Insightful · on NASA Considers Mobile Lunar Base

    What will likely happen, within the next twenty years is the advent of commercialized space travel.

    I'm guessing those who are motivated with money and exploration will be the same ones motivated to reach the moon 'first.'

  34. Re:Not for passengers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years

    Nahh. We don't need big rockets with lots of power anymore to get into orbit. Just an airplane to get us up high, and a small craft with a couple of tiny rocket engines of its own to take that last little step into orbit.

  35. Just a thought: by Paulrothrock · · Score: 3, Funny · on ISS Spacewalk Cut Short

    Maybe these guys could help.

  36. Re:It should have been expected by Long-EZ · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed
    You claimed that SpaceShipOne has no attitude thrusters. Wrong. The ship is equipped with cold gas jet thrusters, RCS or Reaction Control System, for attitude control in space.

    Suggestion:

    1) Read about something.
    2) Understand something.
    3) Post about something.

    Ditto to the moderators who modded this informationally devoid post as informative.

    Do you honestly think the designer and test pilot of the first successful private space launch would expect ailerons and elevators to work in a near vacuum? You do know they used computers and sophisticated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to analyze SS1's aerodynamics throughout the entire range of flight, from freefall after initial separation at 120 knots, through mach 3, and into space, right? This isn't a 7th grade class science project. Maybe you should email to tell them which way gravity pulls, too.

    You get my Mr. Obvious Slashdot Award of the week.

    If you'd actually like to learn about SS1:
    http://www.howstuffworks.com/spaceshipone.htm
    http://www.scaled.com/

  37. Re:THIS IS NOT FUNNY 1.0 inch = 2.540000cm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative · on Our Friend, The Meter

    Nope:

    Under the command of test pilot Mike Melvill, SpaceShipOne reached a record breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100 km), making Melvill the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere and the first private pilot to earn astronaut wings.
    -Scaled Composites press release

    Sure sounds like the foot measurement is the most accurate, given that it's both the most precise and not prefaced by "approximately". Also, 100 km is 328,084 feet, so how they'd round up to 491 I'm not sure.

  38. Re:It should have been expected by PudriK · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed

    RTFWS - it's got cold gas thrusters.

  39. Orbital vehicle by DJdeli · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed

    Check out Rutan's new toy. I wonder what he's gonna be building with that thing. Consequently, how much money do you think it will take for Rutan to design an orbital vehichle?

  40. Re:It should have been expected by Zoinks · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed

    Sorry, don't think this is an attitude thruster - compare with this picture.

  41. Can anyone explain this? by Avian+visitor · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed

    Compare the length of the engine nozzle on this picture before flight and this picture, taken from the space ship after the engine cut-off.

    I know they are using ablative materials for the nozzle and that the entire engine casing has to be replaced after each flight, but the difference between these two pictures is amazing. It looks like more than a half of the nozzle is missing! Is this because that part of the nozzle was burned away or these two pictures show SpaceShipOne with two different engine nozzles installed?

  42. Can anyone explain this? by Avian+visitor · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed

    Compare the length of the engine nozzle on this picture before flight and this picture, taken from the space ship after the engine cut-off.

    I know they are using ablative materials for the nozzle and that the entire engine casing has to be replaced after each flight, but the difference between these two pictures is amazing. It looks like more than a half of the nozzle is missing! Is this because that part of the nozzle was burned away or these two pictures show SpaceShipOne with two different engine nozzles installed?

  43. Re:Wait a second! by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed

    >Last I checked I didn't hear anything about it having any thrusters.

    Where did you check? Most stories with any depth at all covered this. Yes, it does have thrusters. See Scaled Composites for all the details you might want.
  44. Re:It should have been expected by jeps · · Score: 0 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed
    Here's a poster of SS1 showing amongst other things the position of the thrusters:

    PDF: Space Ship One (www.scaled.com)
    Html: Space Ship One (www.scaled.com)

    - j

  45. Re:It should have been expected by jeps · · Score: 0 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed
    Here's a poster of SS1 showing amongst other things the position of the thrusters:

    PDF: Space Ship One (www.scaled.com)
    Html: Space Ship One (www.scaled.com)

    - j

  46. Re:It should have been expected by worst_name_ever · · Score: 5, Informative · on SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed
    Once the ailerons, elevators and rudders have no air to push agains you're pretty much stuck with gyros, attitude thrusters or a controllable main engine thrust nozzle. This craft had NONE of those

    SpaceShipOne does indeed have cold gas attitude thrusters. You can see a photo of one firing during a test flight here.

  47. Re:So what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Completed Successfully

    Not close by any stretch of the imagination.

    Dumbass.

  48. Using MS Windows in mission critical systems? by Henk+Poley · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Completed Successfully

    See picture at the bottom left.

    You'd guess that Paul Allen would know better...

  49. ... Conspiracy theorist by Xconnect · · Score: 0 · on Mike Melvill Chosen To Fly SpaceShipOne

    Well then, how do you explain the little red squigglies on their MONODS write-up? If that doesn't spell "p-o-w-e-r-p-o-i-n-t" I don't know what does! ;-)

  50. Re:Still below the X-15 flight of 1963 by DoubleD · · Score: 1 · on SpaceShipOne Flight Completed Successfully

    Huge Difference, HUGE.

    The X-Prize is all about encouraging PRIVATE enterprise. USAF hardly counts there.

    Government research and development is great for getting esoteric concepts off the ground. But for real leaps and bounds commercial interest is necessary.

    What was it? 20Mill in funding that allowed Scaled Composits to make this flight. I have heard figures of 500 Mill to just fly the shuttle once.