The New And Right Stuff

On Monday morning in the Mojave desert, an extraordinary thing may happen. A privately funded, privately manned vehicle will be attempt to ascend to 65 miles above Earth, the threshold of space. SpaceShipOne is part of a larger effort to privatize space exploration. Motivated by the X Prize (given to the first team that can launch a crew of three into space in the same machine twice in two weeks’ time), several teams are working to show that spaceflight is not the exclusive domain of governments. This might be the kind of thing that finally gives NASA a kick in the ass. If space is ever going to be accessible to more than a few dozen people, corporate interests have to see that people and goods can be ferried into space cheaply and easily. Of course, an even better technology for getting into orbit, the space elevator, lies on the horizon. I may never get my space station, but maybe by the time I retire I can take a vacation at an orbiting Holiday Inn.