In the past year, a lot has changed in the field of human
spaceflight. (46) In January, President George Bush brushed aside the fact
that America’s entire space-shuttle fleet was grounded when he announced
grandiose plans to put people back on the moon, and then to launch a manned
mission to Mars. (47) In June, Burt Rutan, an American aeronautical
engineer, showed that human spaceflight was no longer the preserve of
governments by sending a man to the edge of space in Space Ship One, a privately
financed vehicle that cost about the same to build as a luxury yacht. That
was followed in September by Sir Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur
behind the Virgin brand, announcing that he had signed a deal with Mr Rutan to
work on plans for a fleet of five suborbital vehicles developed from Space Ship
One. (48) Now, in the dying days of the year, America’s
Congress has passed a bill that unravels a tangle about who would be responsible
for regulating the fledgling industry, and under what terms. (49) The
hill also allows passengers to fly on the understanding that this new generation
of vehicles may not be as safe as taking a commercial flight between, say, New
York and London. The official line from Virgin Galactica,
as Sir Richard’s latest venture is modestly named, is that this coming change in
the law makes no practical difference to the firm’s plans, since they do not
intend to fly unless they can make their spacecraft as safe as a private jet.
But it must surely come as some sort of relief. In any case, Will Whitehorn,
director of corporate affairs at Virgin’s headquarters in London, and soon to
become the president of Virgin Galactica, says that work is under way on a mock
up of the inter[or of a new spacecraft that will hold five passengers. (50)
Virgin has already committed ＄20m towards licensing the SpaceShipOne
technology from Mr Rutan and his financial backer Paul Allen, a software
billionaire.