Next in Space

As you probably know, the Space Shuttle fleet will be retired this year and this means only two countries will still have the power to put man in space... well, not quite. It seams that Obama after he scraped the Constellation program launched the idea of commercial space flight. This means that instead of government owned human space programs we will have corporations pumping the liquid hydrogen in the rockets. This may not be a bad thing but i think we are rushing things.

Are the companies ready for space travel? I don`t think so, but competition should heighten scientific breakthroughs once the wheels start turning. As Obama put it, NASA will take its hands off direct human space travel but it will offer some kind of consulting and will continue its research. I hope i did not create the image of private companies incapable of human space flught, i said that they are not ready yet. Tests are underway for a number of spaceships that will eventually send men farther and faster.

VSS Enterprise, of the Space Ship Two class, is the first commercial spaceship being built for Virgin Galactic by Scaled Composites. In 2011 it will enter service and one trip will cost around 200.000, clearly most of us will have to wait for a discount.