The Onset of Space Tourism

On June 21, 2004, Burt Rutan claimed the X-Prize by building the first privately funded spacecraft to take a man to space twice in the span of two weeks. Burt is a lifetime dreamer and designer of strange aircraft. The design costs were just $25 million, funded by Paul Allen.

Here is a picture of his spacecraft, SpaceShip One:


It sports revolutionary new Care Free Reentry technology that allows it to return through the atmosphere without manual intervention at the "worst possible" descent angle without the problem of heating up. It also avoids the dangerous multi stage boosters of the space shuttle by launching off of a mothership, and using a much less expensive and environmentally friendly fuel.

Designer and Visionary Burt Rutan speaks on the future of space tourism & delivers a well-needed slamming of NASA:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3777568447909293230&q=spaceship+one&hl=en
(I recommend skipping over the boring introductory speakers until you get to Burt Rutan, he's the crazy looking guy with thick sideburns)

Cockpit Video of X-Flight #1:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7774278636534133371&q=spaceship+one&hl=en

Cockpit Video of X-Flight #2:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3017065691684349701&q=spaceship+one&hl=en

Burt Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, has partnered with Virgin Galactic who will be the first space tourism company. Starting in 3 years they will start making daily flights to space on SpaceShip Two, taking 6 passengers per load. They estimate that they can take at least 100,000 people into space a year. They even have hopes to create a hotel in space and on the moon.

You can check out Richard Bransen's fancy schmancy Virgan Galactic website here (don't skip the movie!):
http://www.virgingalactic.com/