Space Ride: $200,000
Dean
Burt Rutan and Richard Branson have announced plans to start offering space tourist flights in 2008--at $200,000 per seat. If that sounds like a lot, consider that the average shuttle launch costs about a billion dollars and takes months or years to plan, and the price has gone up over time, while Branson and Rutan plan to aggressively persue getting the price down over time.
In fairness, Rutan's plane can't yet make it into orbit, just to space. On the other hand, consider how unbelievably fast developments are here in the private sector compared with the shuttle program, already 25 years out of date....
(Via Restless Mania, who has more to say.)
Related Posts (on one page):
- Space Ride: $200,000
- NASA: Arrgh!
It does seem like the shuttle should be an anachronism by now. The personal computer was actually a brand-new idea when they started flying.
And from what I recall, the airframe/external design was finalized during the Bicentennial year (1976).
But I never complain too loudly about anything NASA does. I have worked on a few government programs. It was bad for my blood pressure.
Trying to do anything remotely innovative, creative, or just plain different is practically impossible. No matter which party is in charge. How those people get anything done is beyond me.
I can do that.
Well, I can try...