SpaceShipOne Wins the X Prize

Chris Kraft’s book Flight: My Life in Mission Control discusses the history of the space program, more specifically, the path that led to the first United States manned spaceflight. Every manned space flight made by Americans has been funded by the United States government—until now. This past October, a privately funded spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, became the first of its kind to launch a man into space. In fact, by performing the feat twice in a two week period, it won the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The X Prize, which twenty-four teams had been competing for, was founded by Peter Diamandis as an effort to fuel competition for space liners. The prize had been set to expire at the end of the year before being won earlier this year.

SpaceShipOne was designed by Burt Rutan, whose tiny company is known for their build-your-own-airplane kits. SpaceShipOne is the size of a small biplane, and its fuel consists of laughing gas and rubber. In order to make it to space, the ship is tethered to a larger plane called the White Knight and towed 48,000 feet into the air before it is released and flown on its own. The ship then travels at 2,200 miles per hour and reaches a maximum height of 70 miles. When gravity goes into effect, SpaceShipOne’s wings rotate upward, creating a feathering effect so that it floats gently back to Earth. The funding of the ship was provided by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and fifth richest man in the world. The ship is so innovative that it was even named Time Magazine’s Coolest Invention of 2004.

Rutan and Allen have even made plans with Virgin’s Richard Branson to have sub-orbital and orbital spaceflight available to the public. If the five larger versions of SpaceShipOne that Branson ordered are done on time, then Virgin Galactic should be running by 2007. However, before space tourism can begin, the company must work on making the trips safer. Thus far, 4% of the humans who have gone to space have died there, and that is too high of a number for commercial travel. Despite the risks, there are already 7,000 people on the waiting list for a $190,000 ticket for a suborbital flight.

When NASA was formed in 1958, Chris Kraft could have never fathomed the possibility of everyone experiencing zero-gravity one day. Now that that prospect seems possible, it makes me wonder if this concept will become widely accepted by society. There is an obvious interest, based on the 7,000 person strong waiting list, but 7,000 people represent only a tiny fraction of the total population of the United States. Most people do not have $190,000 lying around, and I am sure that even if money was not an issue, safety would be. I think that the program will have a number of skeptics because of the relative danger that is involved in space flight. Furthermore, many other people probably think that commercial space travel is a pointless waste of money. However, because the program is privately funded, the general public has no say on whether the program will proceed or succeed.

I personally think that commercial space travel is a worthwhile venture. If I had an extra $190,000, I might even consider taking a trip. I mean, why shouldn’t technology be pushed to the limits? Safe and relatively inexpensive space travel could allow much more zero-gravity experimentation for scientists and could provide the opportunity of a lifetime for the average (rich) person.