California spawns so many zany ideas and crackpot frontrunners. It's probably because of the balmy weather, high tech profile, loose money and relatively laidback lifestyle it professes to promote. But it also may be due to trace elements in the ever-present smog clouding people's better judgement.
Whatever the case, it should be no surprise that Dennis Tito, a multi-millionaire who calls California home, became the first ever space tourist. Even though it took the cash-strapped Russians and some reasonably unaccommodating individuals in NASA to pull it off, Tito managed to write himself into the history books with an historic flight in April 2001. (see www.space.com/spacetourism/)
Fast forward three years and a bit... Et voila! California's own Spaceship One captures the Ansari X-Prize by shooting some fortunate test pilot a hundred kilometers straight up (and safely down)in a privately built flyer/launch craft combination and here we are, on the brink of a brand new industry.
Richard Branson definitely thinks so. He's put thirty million dollars of his travel-derived funding behind Burt Rutan and company to help underwrite development of a larger craft for "Virgin Galactic" no less. Now Virgin Atlantic offices worldwide have experienced a hoard of starry-eyed "Dennis-Titos-in-waiting" who are plunking down two hundred thousand dollar deposits in anticipation of being set the first flights scheduled to begin sometime in 2007.
Richard, I think you may have been instrumental in making this within reach of the moderately rich, where it needs to be. Now, if I could just get my kids to work on saving up for a ticket for Daddy for Christmas 2010.
Some nifty reference links:
www.spacetourismsociety.org/
www.virgingalactic.com/
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