Post by RS Davis on Jun 25, 2004 3:23:13 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, UNBELIEVABLE NEWS[/glow]
[glow=red,2,300]by James W. Harris[/glow]
This may just be the most important news event we've ever written about in the Liberator Online.
As you may know, on Monday June 21, 2004, history was made when the first privately-funded space ship, SpaceShipOne, successfully flew into space. (And it did so, incidentally, at a fraction of the cost of government efforts: The $20 million SpaceShipOne program cost only about 5 percent as much as a single NASA shuttle mission.)
It is impossible to overstate the importance of this glorious achievement. At last, we may be on the verge of seeing space exploration liberated from the government -- which has monopolized it and crippled it for decades -- and opened to the private sector, where the same ingenuity and innovation that has given us so many other low-cost, high-tech miracles can bring the unimaginable benefits of space travel to mankind.
Praise to Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne; to Paul Allen of Microsoft fame, who financed the effort; and to Mike Melvill, the 62-year-old test pilot who flew more than 62 miles above the earth. And to all others involved in this historic feat.
The next step for the team is to see if SpaceShipOne can carry three people into space twice within two weeks. If so, they will win the $10 million Ansari X Prize, funded by a group of private space enthusiasts.
But regardless of whether SpaceShipOne wins or not, it has already kicked the doors wide open for private space exploration. At least 27 other organizations are competing for the Ansari X Prize. We are now officially at the dawn of a new era for humankind: an era of mass space travel, exploration, and manufacturing.
UPI reporter Irene Mona Klotz caught the essence of the story:
"It is not for the money these teams have labored for years to come up with a better way to travel to space; it is to demonstrate -- and perhaps eventually cash in on -- the fact that there may very well be a better, less-expensive, more-accessible way to travel to space than what government-funded programs have been serving up for more than four decades."
And so did this story in the Christian Science Monitor:
"When SpaceShipOne split the clear California skies to cross the threshold of space Monday morning, the rumble that echoed down toward the Joshua trees of the Mojave Desert was no mere sonic boom. It was a seismic shift in the history of human exploration... [T]his much seems certain: Space is now open for business."
Finally, there was this wonderful libertarian moment immediately after the flight. While astronaut Mike Melvill stood atop SpaceShipOne in triumph, a member of the Western Libertarian Alliance organization handed Melvill a large poster reading:
"SpaceShipOne
GovernmentZero"
Mike held it up for all to see, and gave a "thumbs-up" signal to the crowd.
It was a great libertarian touch to one of the great liberating events in history.
(Here's a link to a photo of Melvill holding the sign. Photo by Bill Hunt. Scroll to bottom of page to see photo:
www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/spaceshipone/flightday.html )
(Sources: Christian Science Monitor and UPI:
www.csmonitor.com/2004/0622/p01s02-usgn.html
www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040604-121009-7639r )[/b]#nosmileys
[glow=red,2,300]by James W. Harris[/glow]
[shadow=red,left,300]First Private Space Venture Ends With a Libertarian Surprise
[/shadow]This may just be the most important news event we've ever written about in the Liberator Online.
As you may know, on Monday June 21, 2004, history was made when the first privately-funded space ship, SpaceShipOne, successfully flew into space. (And it did so, incidentally, at a fraction of the cost of government efforts: The $20 million SpaceShipOne program cost only about 5 percent as much as a single NASA shuttle mission.)
It is impossible to overstate the importance of this glorious achievement. At last, we may be on the verge of seeing space exploration liberated from the government -- which has monopolized it and crippled it for decades -- and opened to the private sector, where the same ingenuity and innovation that has given us so many other low-cost, high-tech miracles can bring the unimaginable benefits of space travel to mankind.
Praise to Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne; to Paul Allen of Microsoft fame, who financed the effort; and to Mike Melvill, the 62-year-old test pilot who flew more than 62 miles above the earth. And to all others involved in this historic feat.
The next step for the team is to see if SpaceShipOne can carry three people into space twice within two weeks. If so, they will win the $10 million Ansari X Prize, funded by a group of private space enthusiasts.
But regardless of whether SpaceShipOne wins or not, it has already kicked the doors wide open for private space exploration. At least 27 other organizations are competing for the Ansari X Prize. We are now officially at the dawn of a new era for humankind: an era of mass space travel, exploration, and manufacturing.
UPI reporter Irene Mona Klotz caught the essence of the story:
"It is not for the money these teams have labored for years to come up with a better way to travel to space; it is to demonstrate -- and perhaps eventually cash in on -- the fact that there may very well be a better, less-expensive, more-accessible way to travel to space than what government-funded programs have been serving up for more than four decades."
And so did this story in the Christian Science Monitor:
"When SpaceShipOne split the clear California skies to cross the threshold of space Monday morning, the rumble that echoed down toward the Joshua trees of the Mojave Desert was no mere sonic boom. It was a seismic shift in the history of human exploration... [T]his much seems certain: Space is now open for business."
Finally, there was this wonderful libertarian moment immediately after the flight. While astronaut Mike Melvill stood atop SpaceShipOne in triumph, a member of the Western Libertarian Alliance organization handed Melvill a large poster reading:
"SpaceShipOne
GovernmentZero"
Mike held it up for all to see, and gave a "thumbs-up" signal to the crowd.
It was a great libertarian touch to one of the great liberating events in history.
(Here's a link to a photo of Melvill holding the sign. Photo by Bill Hunt. Scroll to bottom of page to see photo:
www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/spaceshipone/flightday.html )
(Sources: Christian Science Monitor and UPI:
www.csmonitor.com/2004/0622/p01s02-usgn.html
www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040604-121009-7639r )[/b]#nosmileys
