NationStates Jolt Archive

Any thoughts on Burt Rutan, the X-Prize, and Space Ship One?

Any thoughts on Burt Rutan, the X-Prize, and Space Ship One?

My main concern is with what a terrible name the vessel had.

Other than that, I find it somewhat disturbing that in the 70s there was a Doctor Who story concerning a stranded alien on Earth trying to make contact with his mothership for rescue... and the name of the alien race was the Rutans... coincidence or universal conspiracy? You decide.

Plane that fly high is spaceship.

I iam just happy that private space travel has finally arrived with multiple ships to be made and used for turism by the end of the decade, it is looking like a bright future.

A few things-
Burt Ratan is pretty cool. All genius like.

I like that the craft that carried SpaceShipOne looked all buggy, too. It could have been anything, really, but they went that extra mile to make the mule look all crazy. Fantastic.

That guy who owns Virgin is the Craziest Rich Guy since Hughes. Hughes may have been split in two at reincarnation into Ratan and the Virgin guy, so this is just Hughes trying to reform his old self.

With the oncoming privitization of space (Virgin Galactic is only the first of MANY companies to come) mankind is going to see countless burgeoning new industries arise (so to speak); most of which we can't even imagine now. World governments have been dragging their heels for the past 3 decades in this field, due to everything from bureaucratic red tape to over complicated designs. Now, as with the early aeronautics industry a century ago, we're once again seeing maverick young entrepeneurs with wild new ideas venturing forth into uncharted territory (physical as well as economic and tecnological)... and isn't that what America is all about? For example: the Spaceship One design, incorporates a relatively small, inexpensive and disposable engine, rather than the gargantuan ones that NASA and the like use to compensate for the thin atmosphere at those altitudes, in tandem with wings that fold upward to create more aerodynamic force keeping it aloft. Up, up and awaaaay... BABY!