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<blockquote data-quote="Rackhir" data-source="post: 2430131" data-attributes="member: 149">Well actually for the first time in a number of years there really is some hope for Space exploration. There have been the first baby steps towards actual comercial space flight with Burt Rutan's success with the X-Prize earlier this year. Already several hundred people have signed up to pay the $100,000/seat for a trip on the successor craft that should be flying in the next year or two. Given the willingness of some people to pay $20-40 mil for a longer trip, I don't see any problems with filling seats on it. Lots of people in just the US can afford to pay that kind of money. There are also at least a half-dozen to a dozen different projects with similar goals including one run by John Carmack of Doom/ID Fame and Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon.com. Paul Allen Microsoft's co-founder is one of the backers of Burt Rutan's space flight attempts as well. So there are some deep pocket people behind this. *Burt Rutan's Company's Web Site<a href="http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/" target="_blank">http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/</a>*General RLV News<a href="http://www.hobbyspace.com/Links/RLVNews.html" target="_blank">http://www.hobbyspace.com/Links/RLVNews.html</a>*Armadillo Aerospace - John Carmack's company<a href="http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home" target="_blank">http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home</a>For the first time since the Columbia disaster, I really feel like there is hope for space exploration.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rackhir, post: 2430131, member: 149"] Well actually for the first time in a number of years there really is some hope for Space exploration. There have been the first baby steps towards actual comercial space flight with Burt Rutan's success with the X-Prize earlier this year. Already several hundred people have signed up to pay the $100,000/seat for a trip on the successor craft that should be flying in the next year or two. Given the willingness of some people to pay $20-40 mil for a longer trip, I don't see any problems with filling seats on it. Lots of people in just the US can afford to pay that kind of money. There are also at least a half-dozen to a dozen different projects with similar goals including one run by John Carmack of Doom/ID Fame and Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon.com. Paul Allen Microsoft's co-founder is one of the backers of Burt Rutan's space flight attempts as well. So there are some deep pocket people behind this. *Burt Rutan's Company's Web Site [url]http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/[/url] *General RLV News [url]http://www.hobbyspace.com/Links/RLVNews.html[/url] *Armadillo Aerospace - John Carmack's company [url]http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home[/url] For the first time since the Columbia disaster, I really feel like there is hope for space exploration. [/QUOTE]

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