Free Republic

Humorist P.J. O’Rourke once said that those who fail to learn from history are probably failing algebra as well. It was a joke, but one with a certain degree of truth. People and organizations rarely seem to learn from history, and those who don’t often have other problems to worry about that are more important. But the corollary to this saying is that even if they do learn from history, it is no guarantee of success

The race to get an astronaut and privately-owned rocket into space is hotting up. The Ansari X-prize will give $10m to the first team who can get a spaceship able to carry three people into space - defined as 100km above earth. They must return safely and repeat the feat within two weeks. Last month Mike Melvill was the first mere mortal in space aboard SpaceShipOne and it looked like the prize was his. But problems meant they were unable to go up again within the two weeks specified by the prize. And now there's someone on their tail.

July 8, 2004 - After announcing this week that the control problems associated with June's historic space flight were solved, Burt Rutan said that the next flights of SpaceShipOne would be official attempts to garner the $10 million Ansari X Prize. Rutan told Wired Online Tuesday (July 6) that his team plans to do three flights in two weeks, although he gave no indication as to when the flights would take place. That's one more flight than required, just in case SpaceShipOne falls short on the first or second attempts. Rutan will give EAA AirVenture attendees the latest information about...

The roar from SpaceShipOne as it blasted into the history books last month, along with the media frenzy that surrounded the first private suborbital spacecraft launch, has long since dissipated; but a ripple of hope about the future of public space travel remains

Some 120 Chinese students are reaching for the stars this summer in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They are taking part in a 6-day-long summer camp on aeronautics and astronautics in the national capital, which started on Tuesday, according to Thursday's China Daily.

During an interview on US news network MSNBC this week, SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill told Deborah Norville that Scaled Composites is planning to shortly give the required 60 days notice that it will fly back to back X Prize qualified flights in an attempt to win the $10 million X Prize.

When I walk with my head held high, I can see great distances and imagine great things. When I walk with eyes cast down, I see only my feet and the sidewalk below them. When it comes to America's vision for space, most of the commentary on President Bush's recently announced initiative is sadly sidewalk-bound.

Two major problems experienced during last month's suborbital space flight of Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne vehicle have been corrected, Wired News reported Wednesday. In an interview, Burt Rutan said that engineers have solved a problem with a roll trim actuator that SpaceShipOne experienced late in the powered portion of the vehicle's flight. While Rutan said immediately after the June 21 flight that the problem was serious, he downplayed the problem in the Wired interview, saying that the actuator had hit a mechanical stop that limited its movement. Rutan also said that the strong roll the vehicle encountered immediately after starting its...

David and Geske Core bore little resemblance to the image of the square-jawed, broad-chested space traveller of the comic books. When they left the earth's atmosphere in 2001, the silver-haired and bespectacled couple were both the wrong side of 70. They never came back.

For years, scientists have been listening for faint whispers of E.T. phoning anyone in electronic earshot. Now, some researchers are hearing sounds almost as exciting - the staccato of hammers, the crackle of arc welders, and the rumble of construction equipment - that signal the building of huge new telescopes to help answer an old question: Are we alone in the galaxy?

China is eyeing participation in new privately funded U.S. space ventures, such as the Bigelow Aerospace inflatable habitat for biotech or other space-business endeavors. A Chinese role in these ventures could challenge the U.S. government to focus more attention on space cooperation with China. This is especially so, since the U.S. State Dept. would have to rule on such commercial cooperation. Bigelow is receiving substantial technical assistance from the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), which developed the original TransHab inflatable concept considered earlier for use on the International Space Station (AW&ST Dec. 8, 1997, p. 39). Bigelow has taken over...

Randa Milliron has a vaguely familiar face: defined jaw, prominent nose, clear pale skin and sharp blue eyes that peer directly at you from beneath a row of straight-edged, silvery blonde bangs

The latest and most serious call for a separate military space service is in this month’s issue of the US Naval Institute’s magazine, Proceedings, the US Navy’s principal professional journal. Written by Franz Gayl, a recently retired Marine Corps major, the article makes the case that the Air Force, due to perfectly natural institutional prejudices, is failing in its role as the executive agent for National Security Space or, as he refers to it, NSS. (Presumably, he does not know that there is another NSS out there.) This is an important article for several reasons. It is the first article...

One of the constants of American business is the effort made by state and local governments to lure new businesses to their regions. From automobile factories to biotech research firms to sports franchises, local governments often pull out all the stops to encourage businesses to move to their areas. Those enticements can range from a variety of tax breaks to promises of low costs of doing business to descriptions of a well-educated, available workforce.

In the late 1990s, spurred on by the crash of a comet into Jupiter, Hollywood embraced the meteor disaster movie. The films were loud, but forgettable, and Hollywood has since found other disasters to worry about. But over thirty years ago, a group of engineers in training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a far more realistic defense against a doomsday rock. Their plan would have involved a half-dozen Saturn V rockets carrying some really big bombs.

In a world deeply divided over U.S. involvement in Iraq, it is reassuring that there is one subject on which the people of Earth can agree -- the importance of space exploration. Last week Americans and Europeans worked together to accomplish two notable achievements well beyond the stratosphere.

A civilian pilot's successful flight in suborbital space last week brought a rush to those who dream of one day seeing space themselves. Aided by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen's millions, Michael W. Melvill was lofted 62 miles above California in a trial that lasted 90 minutes. His aircraft, SpaceShipOne, had some mechanical difficulties but nevertheless returned safely to become the first privately funded venture of its kind. The mechanical problems may keep Mr. Melvill's team from claiming the lucrative Ansari X Prize, offered by a private foundation to encourage commercial space travel. Due to expire Jan. 1, the $10...

Hubble discovers 100 new planets By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Hubble monitored the so-called galactic bulge The Hubble Space Telescope may have discovered as many as 100 new planets orbiting stars in our galaxy. Hubble's harvest comes from a sweep of thousands of stars in the dome-like bulge of the Milky Way. If confirmed it would almost double the number of planets known to be circling other stars to about 230. The discovery will lend support to the idea that almost every sunlike star in our galaxy, and probably the Universe, is accompanied by planets. 'Most...

Amid all the acclaim for Burt Rutan, spaceship designer, and pilot Mike Melvill, who carried off their private manned expedition to suborbital space last week, the bigger miracle may have been committed by the sponsors of the X Prize. The group had been keeping up appearances since 1996, but only recently found a way to fully fund its promised $10 million prize -- a bow here to Anousheh Ansari, the Iranian-born telecom entrepreneur who devoted a small chunk of her bubble-era fortune to the cause. Peter Diamandis, the X Prize founder, expected that some $100 million would end up being...

For 43 years, America has had a single port for launching people into space: Cape Canaveral, Fla., an undeveloped, dune-lined beach that noses into the Atlantic Ocean from the peninsula's east coast.