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Space Ship Two Flight Path

Virgin is that much closer to a full fledged commercial space flight having completed a successful test of their Space Ship Two.  The craft remained in Earth’s atmosphere for this trip but success here assures we will soon hear news of Space Ship Two taking the big leap.  Here is the press release with all the nasty details:

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It’s becoming clear that as many Sci-Fi works have foretold, the private sector, commercial entities will lead the way in our forays into space.  Immense sums of money and freedom from the fetters (read ethics) of government control will surely push the boundaries of what is possible in space travel.

You may remember that James Cameron invested in a venture to mine Asteroids on the heels of his film Avatar.  It seems the loss of NASA has only emboldened the private sector.  Things like the X-Prize set great wheels in motion.  NASA seems to have definitely achieved the aim of firing our imaginations, if nothing else.   Of course, there is much more they have achieved and we have learned from NASA missions.  And when I see “we” of course I don’t mean “us”, just the collective scientific mind if you will.

It is really Launcher One that is the business here.  The Launcher is key.  What you launch into space is academic… to a point.  You of course have to create a craft that is not only safe but somewhat comfortable since paying civilians are the payload instead of trained Astronauts.  Not to mention that we’re talking about Virgin here, so it’s going to have some poshness.  This is no doubt a bit more difficult than just shooting cargo into space.

At any rate, it would seem that Virgin Galactic could make a good deal of money just having passengers onboard Launcher One.  I believe it soars high enough to get the average (wo)man that much closer to space than they could ever imagine and I’d hope at a much lower price tag.

As we say at dotunuk, “the future is now.”