The SpaceShipOne project cost less than US$30 million to plan, develop and execute, less than a 10th of what it costs the US government space agency NASA for a single, US$500 million space shuttle launch.
Given the recent setbacks faced by government space agencies: the twin failures of two unmanned expeditions to Mars, the loss of the space shuttle, and just this week, the failure of the oxygen system on the International Space Station, new ways of approaching the scientific and engineering challenges of space travel are badly needed.
SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan clearly believes the private space industry is at a watershed.
"The big guys, the Boeings, the Lockheeds and the nay-saying people at (NASA headquarters) Houston ... I think they are looking at each other now and saying, `We're screwed,'" Rutan said.
The next major step may be prompted by the US$50 million American Space Prize, to be given for the first privately funded, reusable space ship able to carry seven people into orbit. Such a craft would have huge commercial value for the satellite industry.
With the likes of Rutan eyeing the prize, it could be won faster than many people imagine.
A brilliant and original thinker, famous for designing aircraft that reimagine the possibilities of flight, Rutan previously designed and built the Voyager, the spindly craft that in 1985 was the first to fly non-stop around the world without refueling.
Now, even in the glare of Monday's success, Rutan was still thinking about pushing the envelope even further.
"What you've seen here is a research and development program to look at new ideas on how manned spacecraft can really be significantly safer, and there will be new ideas out there," Rutan said. "We will be developing new ideas also on
SpaceShipTwo."
The final frontier
▲ The X prize was inspired by Charles Lindberg's solo, non-stop transatlantic flight in 1927 and is a US$10 million prize awarded to the first spacecraft built with private funds to carry a pilot and the weight of two passengers 100km above the earth. It was won by SpaceShipOne after Monday's flight.
▲ It was established in 1996 by space enthusiasts keen to kick-start an era of affordable, private space travel, which would resemble the commercial air industry.
▲ The first space tourist was US businessman Dennis Tito who paid a reported US$20 million to ride on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station in April 2001. The second, a year later, was a South African Internet millionaire, Mark Shuttleworth.
▲ Space Adventures, a company based in Arlington, Virginia, say it has over 100 people registered who are willing to pay US$100,000 for suborbital flights, if they become available.
▲ Some budding companies are building their business around rockets that do other work in space, such as launching satellites, with passenger flight as a possible spin-off. There may even be high-speed suborbital flights from New York to Tokyo.
Source: news@nature.com
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