Burt Rutan On Future Of SpaceShipOne (and Two)

Neil Halelamien writes "In a recent interview with the Desert Sun, Burt Rutan talks about the future of SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo. The bad news is that SpaceShipOne will be retired straight to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, despite getting five different requests to fly suborbital payloads. The good news is that efforts are being focused on SpaceShipTwo, which will carry nine people, and fly higher and further downrange than SpaceShipOne. Virgin Galactic will purchase a fleet of five of these vehicles, which will start test flights in 2007. Virgin Galactic may end up competing with Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, which is rumored to be developing a VTOL suborbital vehicle. Also interesting to watch will be Rutan's involvement with t/Space, one of the companies contracted by NASA to conduct concept studies for the Vision for Space Exploration."

Comments

Rutan is my hero.

[ruprechtjones]

This man is an inspiration to everybody. He is innovative, intelligent, and follows through with his dreams and goals. So tell me why, WHY Dub Bush gets Time's Person of the Year and Rutan does not.

Re:Rutan is my hero.

[hunterx11]

Men in the future will stand on Rutan's shoulders and take his vision even further. God willing, Bush will leave a legacy which will never be overshadowed.

Re:Rutan is my hero.

[arthurh3535]

You do realize a lot of dictators made "man of the year" too?

Even if you don't like Bush, you have to realise that he was the most influential person (publicly) for last year.

Bad news? WTF?

[brunes69]

The bad news is that SpaceShipOne will be retired straight to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum...

This has to be the stupidest comment I have seen in a /. article posting in a long time. Does this person have any regard at all for the enormous historical value this space ship has?

Imagine it was *not* retired, then went down in flames in a subsequent mission. A very important part of humanity's history would be lost, forever.

Try to think beyond the next few years for once in your life. You can send up payloads in SpaceShipTwo, or SpaceShipThree, or SpaceShipNineteen. But there is only one SpaceShipOne. And I for one would like it to still be around in 80 years, so I can go to the museum with my great-grandchildren and say "Look what some people of my generation accomplished".

Good Decision

[ZPO]

I applaud his decision to send it straight to the Smithsonian. It shows he's a realist and understands the experimental nature of the project.

SpaceshipOne was a concept demonstrator. For him, its time to move on to the production version.

Re:Private space-flight

[cmowire]

No, it sounds like trusting a private corporation to get me in one piece from one place to another using aircraft.

Are you afraid of airliners, too?

Re:SpaceShipOne

[Long-EZ]

You clearly don't understand what is happening. The X-Prize was created to change the entire process of space exploration and development. So far, it has been all about huge government projects, where the goal seems to be to spend as much money as possible while doing as little flying as possible. I'm not knocking the engineers or astronauts at NASA. In fact, I feel sorry for them, trapped in the bureaucracy that won't let them do what they want to do. Governments are not good at invention, innovation, cost reduction, or creative thinking. Entrepreneurs and free enterprise excel in these areas.

Here's the important part you're probably not getting. The recent initial foray into the privatization of space is NOT trying to carry on in the manner of NASA or any other big government or big business space program. They're starting over completely from scratch, using current technology and developing new technology to make space accessable to everyone. We are in the early crawling stages right now, but as any parent can tell you, kids grow up fast. Soon, we'll be walking, then running. There will be other goals such as altitude records, distance records in parabolic flight, etc. Soon, we'll have orbital flight. Although the SS1 can't withstand reentry at orbital velocities, a lot of the technology from SS1 is applicable to orbital flight. After that, there will be privately owned orbital resorts and microgravity manufacturing plants, and eventually private trips to the moon. Watch it happen in the next twenty years.

Private companies will make very rapid progress and will soon surpass NASA and other government sponsored space programs. The financial incentive exists, as does the technical drive to accomplish these goals. Private enterprise will recapitulate NASA's accomplishments, only much faster and for a lot less money.

Many people fail to see the analogy, but the X-Prize really was just like the Orteig Prize that encouraged the first trans-Atlantic airplane crossing in 1927. We are about to enter the era of space development that is similar to what the 1930s was to the aviation industry in all important respects.