Another Step Closer

The U.S. Government has okayed technology transfers between Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, clearing the way for another step toward space tourism, and who knows what else beyond.

[Will] Whitehorn [President of Virgin Galactic] said that next steps can now be taken to construct SpaceShipTwo, hopefully, in the next 8 months, and all of the things that lead up to building the vehicle.

The location to produce the fleet of rocket planes is very likely to be Mojave, California. “That’s where we expect to be in production,” Whitehorn said, although the takeoff site of Virgin Galactic’s public space trips is a different matter.

Given the urban sprawl of Los Angeles and growing encroachment on the desert around Mojave, Virgin Galactic may look for another home as an operational business site, Whitehorn said.

“We are already in discussion with a number of states in the United States,” Whitehorn said, as well as Mojave, California. Two launch sites are a possibility, but that is not a given at the moment, he noted.

“The thing that I find really heartening is the willingness on the part of the U.S. government to make sure that this fledgling industry does prosper in the private sector,” Whitehorn said, and not to “stifle the baby before it’s born.”

Whitehorn said that Virgin Galactic is “generally encouraged on all fronts at the moment.” Still ahead…some two-and-a-half years of hard work in developing The Spaceship Company, he said.

At the Mojave locale, SpaceShipTwo shakeout testing and reaching a level of safety in vehicle operations are top action items. Launching the space tourism business is projected around 2008, Whitehorn explained, although that date is not carved in stone.

The going rate for a seat is $200,000.

The nice thing is that this time around, unlike with the first space race, there's no coextant arms race, which means that government is less likely to try to dictate what does and doesn't happen. This will open up a niche for private industry to do something with outer space, in a very different capacity from the folks at NASA. Who knows, they may even surpass NASA. Either way, I'd love for my children to be able to vacation at a space hotel with the most breathtaking views. Not for myself, though. Can you comprehend just how much I'd have to work out to be fit for flight?

(Hat-tip: Instapundit)

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]