I've been meaning to write about this forever but somehow it keeps slipping past me only to get postponed to a post-it note on my monitor.
On October 4th, 2004, Space Ship One claimed the 10 million dollar prize to become the first private manned space craft to reach space. With that, it obliterated any thought that space was only within the reach of those large, sometimes cumbersome government managed space agencies (ahem . . . NASA).
The story embodied all the virtues of a classic young techno upstart by Paul Allen of Microsoft, designed by supreme aviation designer Burt Rutan, and built by his company Scaled Composites.
This is an age where inventions are often more evolutionary and incremental rather than revolutionary, Space Ship One is ground breaking - perhaps standing right up there with the Wright Brothers, Alexander Bell, and Lambie Baird.
WIth hopes of a bright future in hand where humans can really reach up far beyond the sky, Space Ship One hopes to start its first passenger flights into space in 2007.
Are you a pioneer? If you could afford the air(space)fare, would you go?
another photo after the jump
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