First "Regular Joes" In Space

Something incredibly amazing is going on in the world of space exploration that you should know about; we put a person into orbit! Sounds like something that we did backing the 1960's right? Why get so excited? Because this person was put into orbit in an aircraft built with private money and absolutely no government involvement. That's right; it is now possible for regular companies to build space craft.

Legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan (who designed Voyager that flew around the world on one tank of gas back in 1986) led a team that designed and built the space ship and its "mother ship" to compete for the X Prize. This competition awarded $10 million to the first people to build a private space craft. I think it's safe to say that this mission was not about winning the $10 million for any of the participants involved. They no doubt spent quite a bit more that $10 million on building the craft alone. This is about the next level of space exploration.

Do you realize that this means? Visionary lunatic millionaires like Richard Branson do! Industry no longer needs to wait for government in order to push the boundaries of space. I will vacation on the moon in this lifetime.

The comments in this video probably sum it up better than I can.

Thought you should know.