Monday, June 21, 2004
New frontiersman
It is (mostly) official. The preliminary flight of SpaceShipOne has skirted the edge of space and, in doing so, blown the history books wide open. Test pilot Michael Melvill became the first man to pilot a non-government craft, from the worlds first commercial spaceport, into the boundary between our world and the black.
The X-Prize contenders will make their official run a the title in two months time, but for me the important feat has been accomplished. The idea that space is the territory of governments and militaries is quickly dissolving. Soon space will be, like the rest of the American landscape, a corporate place.
Today a tiny craft has scratched the heavens, but tomorrow more ships, and rockets, and manned craft will pour through the rift created by SpaceShipOne.
posted by JMV |
6/21/2004 09:06:00 AM
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