The Great Beyond......
Well this was an Historic week. Men have been dreaming of escaping the bounds of earth for as long as there has been human kind. Just over 40 years ago President Kennedy challenged the American people to go to the Moon by the end of that decade, we succeeded. For years since all of us who were alive at the time, and those born since have dreamed of being in space. But political and budget realities being what they are, manned space exploration slowed to a crawl. We had the Shuttle, and then the ISS, but it was slow going, the government being the government, and the accidents we all know about, things really haven't advanced in 2 decades.
When I was a kid we just knew that by now we would be on Mars, an maybe even exploring the outer Solar System. I and most of my friends, all wanted to be there. I used to dream of what it would be like to live on Mars, and float in the weightlessness of space. I read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and watched 2001, and Star Trek fantasizing all the while about being there. But until recently it looked like might never make it after all, that were bound to stay tethered to this small blue ball.
Then in May 1996, the ANSARI X PRIZE, was born to inspire commercial ventures into Space. Burt Rutan, and his company Scaled Composites took on the challenge with a vengeance. On September 29th, 2004 Mike Melvill "spun" SpaceShipOne into space, 67.8 miles above the Earth in the Great Black Sky. Then just 6 days later, beating the requirements of the prize by a week, and on the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, Brian Binney piloted SpaceShipOne into space again, this time reaching an attitude 69.6 miles, higher then any private pilot had ever been.
There were 24 teams in all competing for the prize, and the winning of the prize has only served to fuel even more their efforts. Plans are now in place to have regular tourist flights and even commercial space stations in place sometime within the next Decade. So even if I don't make it to Mars, I might someday be able to take a vacation in Earth orbit.
I just need to come up with $120,000 for the ticket, any donations?
Later...
