Space Ship One

Very exciting developments for space travel enthusiasts.

Today, out in the Mohave Desert, a company called Scaled Composites, Inc. is launching what is being billed as the first “Private Manned Space Program”. The built a passenger-carrying sub-orbital hybrid space ship that will carry up to three people into space and return them safely to Earth. This approach would allow lofting a three-person single-stage fully reusable spaceship up to 112 miles (180 kilometers), giving those onboard some five minutes of microgravity. In addition, two-stage expendable boosters could be lobbed skyward from the aircraft, placing micro-satellite payloads of up to 80 pounds (36 kilograms) into low Earth orbit.

This private organization is launching humans into space without the cost and expense that our government’s space program incurs. Hmmm….how so? They have not disclosed the actual cost of this project…so it will be highly interesting to see how much less this project costs, compared to the government’s budget for the last manned space mission.

Do I smell space tourism in the future? I think so. Who knows – – instead of taking Valium and a few martinis to get myself on an airplane to fly a few thousand miles…I might be doing it in preparation for my trip into outer space!