A privately funded effort to establish commercially viable space travel. http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/index.htm
The first successful preview flight was accomplished by the ScaledComposites SpaceShipOne:
2004-10-04: SpaceShipOne has won the Ansari X Prize, launching twice in a week
- http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/xprize_full_coverage.html
- http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/04/spaceshipone.attempt.cnn/
Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic Airways, has announced that he would invest $25 million in a new space venture, to be called Virgin Galactic. The project will license Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne technology for commercial suborbital flights starting at about $200,000. Homepage:http://www.virgingalactic.com/ UpperClass will have unlimited access to the GalacticWiki while in flight
SpaceElevator killer?
- Clearly not. Different application spaces. Much in the same way that automobiles didn't spell the end of trains.
SpaceShipOnce will be for UpperClass the rest of us UnwashedMasses will be herded into the SpaceElevator (just like it says in RedGreenBlueMars).
Just as 'planes were once for the rich and the oiks traveled by ship. Now it's the other way round.