Something for all you space cadets.

[Old Fart]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20101011/ap_tr_ge/us_travel_brief_space_tourism_1

MOJAVE, Calif. – Virgin Galactic's space tourism rocket SpaceShipTwo achieved its first solo glide flight Sunday, marking another step in the company's eventual plans to fly paying passengers.

SpaceShipTwo was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 45,000 feet and released over the Mojave Desert. After the separation, SpaceShipTwo, manned by two pilots, flew freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway followed by the mothership.

The entire test flight lasted about 25 minutes.

"It flew beautifully," said Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides.

The six-passenger SpaceShipTwo is undergoing rigorous testing before it can carry tourists to space. In the latest test, SpaceShipTwo did not fire its rocket engine to climb to space.

Until now, SpaceShipTwo has flown attached to the wing of its special jet-powered mothership dubbed WhiteKnightTwo. Sunday was the first time the spaceship flew on its own

[MGMorden]

Always good to see more activity from the commercial space exploration front.  They've got a ways to go before catching up completely, but they're making great strides. 

My great hope is that they get the cost of a tourist flight into space down to some reasonable level of cost (say, under $50k) before I die.  I've always been more interested in the study of space than simple flights (exception being flights that are used to do good astronomy), but actually going there, in any capacity, would still be a major item to scratch off the bucket list .

[saddlebum]

Aw, man! I thought this was going be a thread for mentally impared folks. Guess I'll keep looking.   

[powderman]

Aw, man! I thought this was going be a thread for mentally impared folks. Guess I'll keep looking.   



SADLEBUM. Me too but it never even mentioned dems or other libs.
HEH, it would be nice though to fly into space, thanks for the info Old Fart. POWDERMAN.