A Ways To Go Yet
Burt Rutan notes that malfunctions in the first private space flight mean that there's a lot of work yet to do before private space flight becomes routine.
It doesn't take away from their achievement either. It was a few years after Kitty Hawk before airplanes became a commercial success too.
Also, SpaceShipOne is only the Tier One of Scaled Composit's program. Tier One's only objective is to satisify the requirement as set by X-Prize. Tier Two should be a bit more ambitious.
They are doing a fine job. A bit more time and we'll see some fine flights.
The fact that it malfunctioned, and still went all the way up and came all the way down-- delivering the passenger in once piece, tells me good things about the basic design...
Dean:
I love these posts of yours on these private enterprise space flights. You are another Walter Cronkite. I grew up with his face and voice on the CBS evening news every night. One thing we admired about him: He had enormous enthusiasm for the space program of the 1960s, which culminated in the first men stepping on the surface of the Moon. I remember his contagious joy in reporting that heroic achievement. You are doing the same thing for us. Thank you.
I'll tell you one more thing I love about Walter Cronkite: One day back in 1968, our parents took us to a political rally of some kind. Walter Cronkite was there. He saw us, my brother and me, he had no idea who we were, but he looked on us and smiled. Just out of a pure benevolent sense of life, and for no other reason. He smiled at some kids who total strangers, just because we were there. Just because he was a good, good man.