# Private spaceflight closer



## Brian G Turner (Aug 13, 2003)

Here's something surely most could be interested in: space tourism. 

A silly dream? No - the craft has just successfully completed its first airborne flight. 

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994043



> *Private spacecraft performs crucial test flight*
> 
> A futuristic looking spacecraft has taken a crucial step towards becoming the first privately funded mission to carry a crew into space by completing its first solo test flight.
> 
> ...




Anyone feel slightly excited at the prospect? 

Okay - go on - imagine you win the lottery first to pay for it.


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## dwndrgn (Aug 13, 2003)

By the time commercial space flight is viable - I'll be too old to appreciate it!  I don't think I would spend that kind of money even if I won the lottery.  There isn't anywhere to go...now if they start a time travel company - I'm there!


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## Foxbat (Aug 13, 2003)

If I had the money, I'd go for it. Simple as that. It's been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 13, 2003)

If I could spare the cash, being able to view the earth from 100 kilometers up would surely be worth the price...

The first people in the earliest flights should be all of the world leaders - so that they can stare in awe at the beautiful blue planet, and suddenly realise precisley why it's worth protecting _earth_ rather than short-term company profits.


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## littlemissattitude (Aug 15, 2003)

> The first people in the earliest flights should be all of the world leaders - so that they can stare in awe at the beautiful blue planet, and suddenly realise precisley why it's worth protecting earth rather than short-term company profits.



Especially if the tour guide would make sure to point out that there are no big florescent lines separating the political divisions (nations) down here.  What they need to realize, I think, is that we're all in the same boat, and it really isn't a very big one.

And, yes, I'd go (although I'm enough of a coward that I wouldn't want to go on the first flight, or the second or the third).  When I was a child I was convinced that I would be the first human woman on Mars.  I think I watched every U. S. manned launch on tv(but one, when was at camp), up until about the tenth space shuttle launch.  The first manned moon landing was very much like a national holiday in our house.  And, in fact, when I was a small child, I lived in sight (and hearing - it sometimes sounded like the mountain was going to take off) of one of the facilities where they tested the engines for the launch vehicles for the American space program.  I grew up with this stuff - you bet I'd go.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 15, 2003)

Sounds like an amazing environment to grow up in. As for the comments about being the first woman on Mars - it reminds me of last year when my daughter Hannah was 3 - she was asking a lot about the moon. She couldn't understand why she couldn't live there, and said that she would. And somewhere within I just nodded and thought "Maybe for your generation, when you're older, you actually will." Something sombering about that thought on our possible future progress. Maybe you can drop her off there on your way to Mars?


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## littlemissattitude (Aug 16, 2003)

I can't tell you how interesting the area I grew up in was.  Southern California takes its lumps, but I feel very fortunate to have grown up there.  There was always something to do, to begin with.  There were always interesting people around.  And there were world class events happening close at hand fairly often.
Not all of it was good, to be sure.  But it was always lively.  It enabled me to grow up to feel connected to the world.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 17, 2003)

I wouldn't have minded being around the area in the late 1960's...but then again, I guess a lot of people would have. 8)


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## nemesis (Aug 21, 2003)

Take the world leaders to the moon and leave them there.
I also think the makers of that craft have watched a lot of Babylon 5.


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