The Art Neuro Weblog

Private Rocket
Here's an interesting article about the first private rocket concern. The imaginatively named SpaceShipOne made its third flight.

Scaled Composites of Mojave is the builder of SpaceShipOne, an effort led by aviation innovator, Burt Rutan. The financial backer of the project is Microsoft mogul, Paul Allen.

In a post-flight statement from the company, the SpaceShipOne team reported that their space plane flew to 212,000 feet altitude, almost 41 miles. NASA awards astronaut status to anyone who flies above 50 miles in altitude.

"This flight marks an additional milestone for Paul G. Allen, Burt Rutan and the innovative aerospace design team in their ongoing efforts to complete the first non-government manned space flight. The test is part of Scaled Composites' Tier One program, funded by Allen, Microsoft co-founder and CEO of Vulcan Inc.," according to the statement.

What is of some interest is that Microsoft people are involved with funding this project. So perhaps the evil Empire is hoping to go to space and sell more operating systems? Anyway, jokes aside, it can't be all bad that they are involved, given their financial power; you could almost argue it's for the good of humanity, given the US government's reluctance to come at Space as an imperative.

-Art Neuro