SpaceShipTwo Flies Free For the First Time 164
mknewman writes "SpaceShipTwo was successfully dropped off its WhiteKnight 2 mothership today from an altitude of 45,000 feet and glided to a landing in the Mojave airstrip." From the article: "More than 300 would-be passengers have already put down more than $45 million in deposits for $200,000-a-seat rides on the plane. The experience will include a roller-coaster rocket ride to a spaceworthy altitude of more than 65 miles, several minutes of weightlessness, a picture-window view of the curving Earth beneath the black sky of space ... and spaceflight bragging rights for years afterward."
Re:Lucky Bastards (Score:5, Funny)
>>I can't wait till it becomes cheaper.
Didn't you read the headline? It flew free for the first time today.
Re:This is how train and air travel began, too. (Score:3, Funny)
We need some targets out there (space stations, moon base, mars base, something) before traveling in space makes any financial sense.
Just release the next ishiny on the moon. They will come.
Re:deposit? (Score:4, Funny)
errrrr (Score:1, Funny)
It's a good start but I won't care to go into "space" until it's legitimately -in- space. You know, like half-way between earth and the moon would be reasonable but barely orbiting earth to me isn't enough space to consider it space travel.
Even though we don't have flying cars (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Offensive (Score:2, Funny)
Change it to "this analogy is so sexist that a grandmother could be offended by it."
Space, the final frontier (Score:3, Funny)
Re:deposit? (Score:1, Funny)
In the US, everybody is middle class. Only backwards Europeans have an upper class, and only communists would have a working class. And the US certainly isn't European or communist.
Only In America..... (Score:3, Funny)
Only in America would people pay $200,000 for a plane ride that takes off from the same place they will be landing.