we get it... daily
June 21, 2004
Jes' regular folks in space...
Yeah, today's private launch is the first non-government venture off planet, but private doesn't mean it was Joe Sixpack by any means. Paul Allen could be a small country unto himself, and he dumped the 20 million into the coffers that sent Michael Melvill up 100km and brought him back down again (we have mentioned that the last part is the real trick).
While it's terrific that private ventures will speed up the snail pace that NASA had kept for years, we do expect that when the first private disaster occurs there will be a clattering of senators yammering about regulating access to the great void. Now if we could only entice some of them to take the trip...
Read the Lies
Read the Shouts
Read the Archives
Read the Static
Read the Financials