Burt Rutan On Future Of SpaceShipOne (and Two) 182
Neil Halelamien writes "In a recent interview with the Desert Sun, Burt Rutan talks about the future of SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo. The bad news is that SpaceShipOne will be retired straight to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, despite getting five different requests to fly suborbital payloads. The good news is that efforts are being focused on SpaceShipTwo, which will carry nine people, and fly higher and further downrange than SpaceShipOne. Virgin Galactic will purchase a fleet of five of these vehicles, which will start test flights in 2007. Virgin Galactic may end up competing with Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, which is rumored to be developing a VTOL suborbital vehicle. Also interesting to watch will be Rutan's involvement with t/Space, one of the companies contracted by NASA to conduct concept studies for the Vision for Space Exploration."
Rutan is my hero. (Score:5, Insightful)
Private space-flight (Score:2, Insightful)
It's kind of trusting law-enforcement or health-care to private corporations. Way too important to be trusted to people who only understand profit.
These stories are great (Score:2, Insightful)
It's amazing how fast it's coming along since the X-Prize, with some great (and very rich!) minds at the forefront.
The future in this area looks good
Bad news? WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
The bad news is that SpaceShipOne will be retired straight to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum...
This has to be the stupidest comment I have seen in a /. article posting in a long time. Does this person have any regard at all for the enormous historical value this space ship has?
Imagine it was *not* retired, then went down in flames in a subsequent mission. A very important part of humanity's history would be lost, forever.
Try to think beyond the next few years for once in your life. You can send up payloads in SpaceShipTwo, or SpaceShipThree, or SpaceShipNineteen. But there is only one SpaceShipOne. And I for one would like it to still be around in 80 years, so I can go to the museum with my great-grandchildren and say "Look what some people of my generation accomplished".
Good Decision (Score:5, Insightful)
SpaceshipOne was a concept demonstrator. For him, its time to move on to the production version.
Re:Rutan is my hero. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:SpaceShipOne (Score:2, Insightful)
Too much "help" from NASA has hurt development in some respects.
Are you trying to tell me competion doesn't lead to innovation? There has to be a division somewhere between companies and ideas, otherwise only one sollution would be proposed, and only one solution built.
However many solutions, with the one working solution being used for the next stage of innovation, is a much better system.
NASA may not be dumb. But they are a huge goverment operation that may not be doing things the best way, and other than internal competition, there is not way to promote differing ideas.
Re:Rutan is my hero. (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if you don't like Bush, you have to realise that he was the most influential person (publicly) for last year.
Re:That's easy (Score:3, Insightful)
With all due respect, I think Bush has had a far greater impact on the world that Rutan will. Bush invaded Afghanistan, instituted massive tax cuts, racked up huge government deficits, added prescription drug benefits to Medicare, invaded Iraq, and made huge changes in US policy towards Israel/Palestine and North Korea. By the time he's done he may also privatize Social Security and preside over the successful completion of another WTO round that could have a huge impact on third world economies. These actions all will have a major impact on social welfare programs, global economics, and geopolitics for years to come - whether they are good or bad, no one can deny their unbelievable impact. Personally, I loved Clinton, but there's no way Clinton had as much impact as Bush has had thus far.
Hell, I haven't even mentioned Bush's coat tails - the man increased his congressional majorities in both 2002 and 2004! That's simply amazing, and may be the start of a long period of Republican dominance in Washington, D.C.
As for Rutan, yes, SpaceShipOne is impressive. But, to my mind, it impacts only one aspect of human existence, and is a breakthrough that would have occurred even without him.
What is amazing about SpaceShipOne is not that it is some unimagined technological marvel, but that it heralds the start of a commercial age in space (or speeds up the commercial age in space, since satellite launching had already been privatized to some extent). But if Rutan had not been around, someone else would have done it. He didn't initiate the X-Prize, he just won it. As we can see by the other competitors for X-Prize and the others who are trying to set up competitors for the next round of space commercialization, if he didn't do it, someone else would have.
By comparison, if Gore had been elected, things would be anything like they are now. Again - good or bad - Bush has heralded in huge changes that would not have happened without him. Rutan has issued in one change that won't impact any of us for years to come, and would inevitably have happened even if he hadn't been around.
Re:Private space-flight (Score:2, Insightful)
His drive is to fulfill a life-long goal of traveling to space. I bet many slashdotters share that desire.
Re:Private space-flight (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you afraid of airliners, too?
Isn't 'Virgin Galactic' just a bit presumptuous? (Score:2, Insightful)
Virgin Orbit sounds more likely in the near term.
Re:SpaceShipOne (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's the important part you're probably not getting. The recent initial foray into the privatization of space is NOT trying to carry on in the manner of NASA or any other big government or big business space program. They're starting over completely from scratch, using current technology and developing new technology to make space accessable to everyone. We are in the early crawling stages right now, but as any parent can tell you, kids grow up fast. Soon, we'll be walking, then running. There will be other goals such as altitude records, distance records in parabolic flight, etc. Soon, we'll have orbital flight. Although the SS1 can't withstand reentry at orbital velocities, a lot of the technology from SS1 is applicable to orbital flight. After that, there will be privately owned orbital resorts and microgravity manufacturing plants, and eventually private trips to the moon. Watch it happen in the next twenty years.
Private companies will make very rapid progress and will soon surpass NASA and other government sponsored space programs. The financial incentive exists, as does the technical drive to accomplish these goals. Private enterprise will recapitulate NASA's accomplishments, only much faster and for a lot less money.
Many people fail to see the analogy, but the X-Prize really was just like the Orteig [wikipedia.org] Prize that encouraged the first trans-Atlantic airplane crossing in 1927. We are about to enter the era of space development that is similar to what the 1930s was to the aviation industry in all important respects.
Re:Private space-flight (Score:2, Insightful)
Health care seems private from this end - most people I know takes at least one type of medicine he buys himself (homeopathic or prescribed non-free medicine).
We have medical plans, payed by docking our salary. If I need a major surgery, I pay some of it and my financed-out-of-my-salary insurance pays the rest. Nothing here is government, nor profit-free.
Same for accidents insurance, in my history. I was the cause of the accident so I had to pay, despite insurance. No government protected me.
NASA is intelligent? (Score:2, Insightful)
Simply ridiculous.
Do you know why Challenger exploded?
Summary: Because NASA was not smart. They launched when the conditions were documented out of spec.
Do you know why Columbia burned?
Summary: Because NASA was not smart. They launched and re-entered after engineers had warned about the foam and tiles.
As far as being reasonable about 40 MPH winds on takeoff goes, I've flown planes in those conditions. No problem, all you need is a little skill. Believe me, the guys flying for Rutan have much more skill than I do, as well as much more capable planes. Add to that, surface conditions are largely irrelevant for aircraft that are exploring a flight envelope centered on >50Km altitudes and supersonic speeds.