Up and Out
Jul. 13th, 2004 01:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusThe company to watch for the next couple of decades: Scaled Composites
They of course gained a lot of press last month with SpaceShip One, the first private-sector space ship. Rutan said at the time that orbital flights "might be sooner than you think." Of course, if they're sooner than I think, that means in the next couple of years. But he probably wasn't talking to me
In their latest press releaselatest press release, they talk a little bit more about the future: the next step is $100,000 suborbital flights (or one half of one percent of what it currently costs to go to the Space Station on a Russian rocket.) The next generation includes building a hotel, with tickets in the $10,000-$12,000 range.
Of course, if they manage to actually build the space elevator within the projected 15-year time frame (at a monetary cost of about what it costs us to occupy Iraq for two weeks), then it'll limit the whole thing moot, and rockets will be forever relegated solely to the military, super-rich travellers who will need to get up in a hurry, and perhaps the Mars colonies, where, due to the lesser gravity, liftoff costs will be considerably less than they are here on the Homeworld.
They of course gained a lot of press last month with SpaceShip One, the first private-sector space ship. Rutan said at the time that orbital flights "might be sooner than you think." Of course, if they're sooner than I think, that means in the next couple of years. But he probably wasn't talking to me
In their latest press releaselatest press release, they talk a little bit more about the future: the next step is $100,000 suborbital flights (or one half of one percent of what it currently costs to go to the Space Station on a Russian rocket.) The next generation includes building a hotel, with tickets in the $10,000-$12,000 range.
When pressed on when passenger-carrying spaceships will show up on the scene, Rutan remained cagey. "All I ask you to do is stay tuned. I think its going to be interesting. I believe there will be a lot of activity."
Of course, if they manage to actually build the space elevator within the projected 15-year time frame (at a monetary cost of about what it costs us to occupy Iraq for two weeks), then it'll limit the whole thing moot, and rockets will be forever relegated solely to the military, super-rich travellers who will need to get up in a hurry, and perhaps the Mars colonies, where, due to the lesser gravity, liftoff costs will be considerably less than they are here on the Homeworld.
