Today marks the second anniversary of SpaceShipOne’s capture of the $10-million Ansari X Prize with its second suborbital spaceflight in under a week. (Of course, they didn’t officially get the check until a ceremony in St. Louis the following month; details, details.) MSNBC’s Alan Boyle reflects on the anniversary and asks, in essence: dude, where’s my spaceship? There haven’t been any manned commercial suborbital spaceflights since SpaceShipOne’s final flight two years ago, and it will be a while before the next takes place. (I voiced similar comments back in June, on the second anniversary of SS1’s first space flight.) Boyle does find some optimism about the future from Peter Diamandis and Gary Hudson; Hudson in particular believes the number of self-funded ventures that don’t need to be constantly fundraising is the key difference between now and past false starts. “Investors are easily spooked,” Hudson said. “Zealots – and I mean that in the good sense – are not.”
X Prize 2nd anniversary
Today marks the second anniversary of SpaceShipOne’s capture of the $10-million Ansari X Prize with its second suborbital spaceflight in under a week. (Of course, they didn’t officially get the check until a ceremony in St. Louis the following month; details, details.) MSNBC’s Alan Boyle reflects on the anniversary and asks, in essence: dude, where’s my spaceship? There haven’t been any manned commercial suborbital spaceflights since SpaceShipOne’s final flight two years ago, and it will be a while before the next takes place. (I voiced similar comments back in June, on the second anniversary of SS1’s first space flight.) Boyle does find some optimism about the future from Peter Diamandis and Gary Hudson; Hudson in particular believes the number of self-funded ventures that don’t need to be constantly fundraising is the key difference between now and past false starts. “Investors are easily spooked,” Hudson said. “Zealots – and I mean that in the good sense – are not.”