Sir Richard Branson reveals Virgin spaceship

From Telegraph.co.uk:

Sir Richard Branson unveiled the final design of the spaceship he hopes will take fare-paying passengers into space.

Sir Richard, whose Virgin Galactic is one of several commercial enterprises competing in the nascent space tourism market, said SpaceShipTwo will start test flights later this year.

Speaking at a launch at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, he said: "Two thousand eight is going to be the year of the spaceship. We're excited about this, and everything it will do."

He described the designs of both the mothership and the new spaceship as "absolutely beautiful" and beyond anything he had expected for commercial space flight when his company registered the Virgin Galactic name in 1999.

...

He added: "I think it's very important that we make a genuine commercial success of this project. If we do, I believe we'll unlock a wall of private sector money into both space launch systems and space technology."

I absolutely love it! The private sector is doing what the government can't do: build affordable, reliable space transportation vehicles for the everyman. When government sends something into space, it costs us a billion dollars. When the private sector does it, we make a billion dollars.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope that Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan make NASA obsolete, and soon. Space is a trasure trove, not a money pit. Let's utilize it properly.

Fri, Jan 25, 2008  Permanent link