Private Space Flight Cometh

Humanity must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only then will we fully understand the world in which we live.

--Socrates, 500 B.C.

 One of the most exciting news stories of 2004 was the completion of the quest for the X-Prize by Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites crew. In case you missed it, Burt and company managed to launch the first private-sector astronauts into space, recover them safely, and repeat the feat within two weeks. And they did it all without any help from the government.

The feat that they accomplished is all the more amazing in that the space vehicle (SpaceShipOne) is made completely of composite materials and utilizes no heat shields. Hopefully NASA is paying attention. The recovery is accomplished without the violent re-entry that we've all become accustomed to seeing through the use of a shape-changing spacecraft. The tailfeathers of SpaceShipOne rotate upon re-entry and cause the spacecraft to flutter back to earth like a shuttlecock, instead of burning its way through the atmosphere, a-la the Space Shuttle.

It has always been my belief that left to our own imagination and inventiveness, that man can overcome any obstacle, and Rutan managed to overcome an obstacle that NASA continues to just deal with. Rutan made a lot of noise in the days and weeks leading up the the launch of SpaceShipOne needling NASA for their inefficiencies, and while somewhat mean-spirited at times, it was right on the money. The shuttle has been in service since what, the early eighties, and in that time what has changed to make space flight safer? Not much. The safety of the crew still relies on extremely fragile heat shielding tiles upon re-entry. I sincerely hope that NASA sits up and takes note of the fact that re-entry can be achieved much more safely.

But that's not the point of this missive. The point is that private space flight is coming, and coming fast. It won't be affordable enough for the masses to begin with, but neither was airline travel. Now, I can fly from Atlanta to San Francisco for a hundred bucks. The same will be true of private space flight.

BBC News has an article (go there) detailing the involvement of the billionaire founder of Virgin Atlantic airlines Richard Branson with Burt Rutan in the creation of the first private fleet of spacecraft. The sole intention is to take civilians into space, and in coming years to do it cheaply enough to allow almost anyone to make the journey. The exciting part is that the spacecraft can take off from one location and land in another. Could this be the future of trans-oceanic flight? Quite possibly, and the implications of that are dire for trans-oceanic airlines of today.

This appeals to me because it is reminicent of the beginnings of aviation as we know it. We're looking at the beginning of a new era of human flight, and when you realize that you're living in a time when history is being made and appreciate it, it's all the more amazing what Rutan accomplished. He didn't just win a million-dollar prize, he took the sole ownership of the realm of space away from governments and placed it firmly in the lap of private citizens. The challenge in the future will be keeping the governments of the world from attempting to quash private space travel in the name of "safety".

It's an exciting time to live in. I'm glad I'm around for it.