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Amazingly,
the first flight of Virgin Galactic is expected to
launch in just 3 years, and within 5 years, the aviation
/ space company hopes to have created over 3,000 new
astronauts from countries throughout the world.
Additionally, the plan includes constructing launch pads
for commercial space travel through-out the world over
the next few years.
To me, this seems like the key to the plan – going
global. In many places resources and investors might be
lined up. In other places, it just will be simpler to
set up ‘spaceports’ for space flights to depart and
arrive.
Some already doubt the plan, but the Branson – Rutan
– Allen team isn’t the only one getting involved in
sub orbital travel.
SpaceDev, contributors to the hybrid rocket system of
SpaceShipOne, have also announced a new spaceship. Dream
Chaser could be ready for its maiden flight as early as
2008.
Still, why doubt Rutan? SpaceShipOne now has 3
successful missions under its belt, 2 astronauts, and an
incredibly innovative leadership team. Rutan recently
stated, “We are extremely confident that we are going
to be able to produce the first space tourism commercial
spaceliner that will start out service with reliability,
I believe, significantly better than the first airlines
had when they started doing service decades ago when we
had the first airliner.”
Still it’s not just Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic
will be building its first new vessel, VSS Enterprise,
next year. Additionally, Burt Rutan stated that
SpaceShipOne has provided ideas for SpaceShipTwo. So it
seems there might be multiple projects coming out of the
Rutan – Allen camp.
Since Mohave is licensing technology to Virgin, Scaled
Composites should have time – and new funding – to
develop a second generation vehicle, SpaceShipTwo.
Space will be ours!
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