Burt Rutan was the luncheon speaker Thursday at ISDC, and his his extended speech (which lasted close to an hour counting Q&qmp;A) he fired some shots at pretty much everyone else involved in the space industry, including NASA, FAA/AST, and other ventures. For some summaries of comments, check out the articles at SPACE.com, MSNBC, and the AP. (I may write a summary article of my own later, when time permits.) A sample zinger from Rutan, which generated perhaps the most “ooooohhhhh”‘s from the audience: “Some people are still chasing dreams, and even name their ships appropriately”—a barb aimed at SpaceDev and its Dream Chaser vehicle design.
You might think that Rutan came off as a grumpy old man—an industry curmudgeon of sorts. He prefaced many of his sharpest comments with words like, “I’m here as a humorist.” Still, I suspect many of his comments stung, especially in those cases where his words had a ring of truth. Still, he received rousing ovations from the audience on a number of occasions. He stuck around long after his speech to sign autographs and have pictures taken with people, and if you ever doubted Rutan had a soft side, here’s proof:
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