I surely hope that one or even better, many of the private space flight companies, are successful in their effort. This is good news for all of us, and not just for America. If we are going to survive, we have to get out there and make it worthwhile to go, not just for the science of it all.

And, ya know, some people try to write scare stories that the Chinese space program will leave the United States in the dust - as if a command and control government (which is only now tryint to duplicate stuff we did 40 years ago) can actually compete with a country where private enterprise is now about to go into space.

God bless the men and women who are working on this and I wish them all the luck in the world

What I'd really like to see is a shot of Space Ship 1 in shuttlecock mode. I'm not sure White Knight can take her up high enough, but that test will really get my hopes up.

The buzz has been that more than one of the X-Prize competitors is aiming for a space shot on the hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight. Aside from the powerful symbolism, it would make a nice birthday present for me.

Mark:

Lesse now... "a command and control government" put the first man into space.

"a command and control government" put the first man into orbit.

"a command and control government" put the first two men into space.

"a command and control government" put the first woman into space.

"a command and control government" performed the first space walk...

And so on...

Shall I also point out that, up until the actual launch of Spaceship One, any and all Americans have gone into orbit through the agency of NASA!? You know the US equivalent of "a command and control government"? Hm?

And it isn't just a "scare story," Mr. Noonan, to point out that the US hasn't landed a man on the Moon for over a quarter of a century, and has yet to put up a sustained space station to equal Mir.

And it also isn't a "scare story" to point out that the Vikings (the "bad asses" of their time) put colonies in American 500 years before Columbus.

And it also isn't a "scare story" to point out that Portugal and Spain (not hitherto known as World Powers) gained a tremendous amount of wealth and power from their explorations... All of which WAS directed through the "a command and control government" of the time... Heh heh heh... :)

"Lesse now... "a command and control government" put the first man into space.

"a command and control government" put the first man into orbit.

"a command and control government" put the first two men into space.

"a command and control government" put the first woman into space.

"a command and control government" performed the first space walk...

And so on..."

And the "command and control government" has yet to give us the means to go there ourselves. NASA is flatly not interested in bringing the unwashed masses to their playground. That's simply not going to happen until the private players get off the ground.

Faster, please.

Casey,

And thus in 10 or 20 years China will build a Mir...meanwhile, American and Japanese businessmen will be building their first vacation resort on the Moon.

There is an argument in favor of having government handle big R&D projects (but even that can be a bit weak), but when it comes to the actual exploitation of technology, nothing even comes close to private enterprise. China's space program will fail to deliver anything meaningful as long as its dictated by the Chinese government - just as our space program has grown moribund.

Now, that said, I would like to see a full court press to get back to the Moon and on to Mars - but mostly as a means of providing a platform for private enterprise to really bring space "home".

Actually the Gemini and Apollos programs weren't a command-and-control environment really. They were tightly-focused projects with very specific goals--a rarity for government projects--that relied on a tremendous amount of innovation from the private sector.

That goal was very simple: get into space, then, get to the moon.

NASA's real problem is that no government agency is ever going to have the smarts to do something infinitely more complicated, like, "Make this economically profitable."

Government funding did help spur the private sector to research that was very valuable, and is still paying dividends to this day. The problem is, I'm not sure how much more of that they can do.

We're going to need private enterprise to find a way to make space flight cheap and affordable. They're doing it. I wouldn't mind seeing NASA do things to help, like offering to add money to the X-Prize. But in the long run, it's probably best that they stay out, because if they got in, they'd want to meddle too much, probably.

I still often think the best thing we could do for getting Americans into space would be dismantling NASA completely. When I'm in a bad mood.

It is not now, nor has it ever been NASAs job of getting us (the unwashed masses) into space. Its job is to push the envelope of the technology necessary to do so. It is up to our private industry to find a way to make money on the venture without spending billions of dollars. Granted, there is TONS of money to be made from asteroid mining, but where is the seed money going to come from with the payoff many, many, many years in the future? Each (NASA, private industry) has its part to play. As a member of the EAA I have been a fan of Rutan ever since the Vari eze was first flown. His track record speaks for itself. Best of luck Bert!!!