The Triangle

Issue date: 10/8/04 Section: Sci-Tech

Media Credit: http://www.scaled.com [Click to enlarge]

In 1927 the Spirit of St. Louis carried Charles Lindburgh from New York to Paris to a $25,000 prize, and more importantly, into the history books which continue to inspire. Oct. 4 marked an equally important date in aeronautical history. SpaceShipOne, the world's first privately built manned space craft, traveled into space for the second time in a week. Test pilot Brian Binnie flew SpaceShipOne to a radar-confirmed altitude of 367,442 feet (about 70 miles) above the Earth. In doing so, the team behind SpaceShipOne won the $10 million dollar Ansari X Prize.

The X Prize has been offered since 1996 by the non-profit X Prize Foundation for the specific reason of ushering in an age of space tourism. The $10 million dollars in reward money will not make up for the $25 million furnished by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to build SpaceShipOne, but the winnings were never the end goal. This was a situation in which science and achievement outweighed the costs.

The backers of these programs and prizes believe that the wonder and intrigue of space over the years will be renewed when people have the opportunity to actually go there. Space travel should not be limited to government agencies like NASA, but extended to all people.

Burt Rutan, the lead designer of SpaceShipOne, already plans to reject bids to use SpaceShipOne as a scientific research vessel. The intent is to use SpaceShipOne as a model for developing a fleet of commercial spaceliners, although Rutan admits that once all necessary design data is extracted from SpaceShipOne and the ship is decommissioned, he hopes to see his creation in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Rutan's group, American Mojave Aerospace, has teamed up with Richard Branson and one of his companies, Virgin Atlantic Airways, to develop their next generation space vehicle, dubbed SpaceShipTwo. This will presumably be the model for Virgin's fleet.

The vehicle will be designed to carry five people at a time, and is scheduled for delivery in three years. The new space travel company will be called Virgin Galactic, and Branson promises to re-invest all profits to build new space transportation systems.

Space flights for paying customers are tentatively predicted to begin in 2007, but you'll need to save up $208,000 for a "ticket to ride."

This initial price is predicted to drop as research expenditures are covered and operating costs are reduced, making commercial space flight available to as many as possible.

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