SpaceShipOne Inventor Says Space in Reach
WASHINGTON (AP) — The inventor of the first private spaceship predicted Wednesday that commercial manned space flight would move quickly from joyrides for millionaires to the general public and spawn advances not yet imagined – much as early computers opened the way for the Internet.
Wearing a black leather jacket and 19th-century mutton-chop sideburns in his first appearance before a congressional committee, Burt Rutan sketched a futuristic vision for the space tourism industry that was invigorated by last fall’s flights of his SpaceShipOne over California’s Mojave Desert to capture a $10 million prize.
Rutan has a deal with Virgin Galactic, part of the United Kingdom’s Virgin Group, to build five spaceships that will blast paying customers into space as early as 2008. Tickets are $200,000 each – and 29,000 people have already signed up, Virgin Galactic says.
Rutan told the House Science subcommittee on space and aeronautics that his vision goes far beyond that. He said once space travel becomes relatively safe – something he described as possible but not yet in reach – tens of thousands of paying customers will go into space, opening scientific and educational frontiers along the way.
"I am not embarrassed that the first decade of commercial space flight will be for nothing but fun," Rutan said. "I am confident that when there’s 50,000 people that have left the atmosphere, and when there’s a lot of capital and investment in it because it’s profitable, we’ll get out there and we’ll solve the reasons to make it also safe to go into orbit and go to the moon and we will also find out new uses for it."
Rutan, who also designed the GlobalFlyer plane that carried millionaire Steve Fossett around the world last month, added, "There will be somebody that comes along and invents an Internet-like reason for changing this fun into something that is long-lasting and significant for our nation."
After SpaceShipOne’s flights last year, Congress passed legislation to regulate space tourism, authorizing the Federal Aviation Administration to issue permits allowing private operators to carry paying passengers into space. Over objections from Democrats who wanted more safety regulations, the law barred the FAA from issuing safety regulations for passengers and crew for eight years.
Rutan and Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said the industry can develop best without government interference. But Rutan said the government must at some point require testing to prove passenger safety – thus improving operators’ chances of getting insurance.
For now, it appears only Virgin Galactic and one other company are taking reservations for space travel, but Rutan predicted a robust marketplace where different operators compete and many fail, as in the early years of commercial aviation.
Whitehorn said that while the first space tourists will pay $200,000 each, his company expects ticket prices to drop to $25,000 to $30,000 each within several years.
"We are working very hard to ensure this will be extremely attractive to the public," said Rutan, 61, of Mojave, Calif. "I think this will be a much, much bigger market than anyone imagines."
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