Private spaceship carrier plane damaged in test

If I had a quarter of a million dollars going into space would be the farthest thing on my mind. Too many other things to do for a lot less.

I think the reasons why Obama supported a privatization of the space program, other then that’s what his advisers told him to do; is that it gives him cover with the radical cuts he has asked for, and hey if it fails, it makes big government look good anyway.

Failure IS AN OPTION WITH DEMOCRATS,

IN FACT, THEY THRIVE ON FAILURE!

going into space is the stuff dreams are made of. reaching for the unobtainable and catching it is magical. 1/4 million is not alot for many folks. problem is without government intervention,regulation and even protection space might end up being another area we humans fight each other over disgustingly.

The entire manned space program is a waste. Robots and remote vehicles can do everything a man can, but make widows and fatherless children. They are not harmed by radiation, muscle loss, bone softening or long term isolation homosexuality.

@ sailor dude, dude ur a joke, this article HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with dems or repubs, AND ur post only futhers proof that reight wingers are NUTS, I’m not a fan of NObama, but leave him outta a story of failing landing gear on a PRIVATELY OWNED AIRCRAFT OF A PRIVATE OWNED COMPANY… sometmes a story….is just a story… put down the knife and step away from your comment box nobody wants to read ur trash.
Now on the story, I agree with the first post…I could think of ALOT BETTER things to do with 200,000 dollars…than popping into space for a few minutes, I would immagine the view of earth wont be a good one seeing as ur not fully out in space…. If I were filthy rich like the bankers or oil tycoons and had billion dollar bonuses… well then I probley would go…just cause I could and It would be an exciting ride going up that high…. I wont loose sleep if I never made the trip though.

wolfboi, This article has a link up on the Drudge Report. That explains sailordude. Its quite common for the comment section of stories to go exactly that route, no matter what the story is about, if they are linked from Drudge Report. Its pretty funny to observe, actually. As for the article: I, for one, would have to be out of options for ways to use my money to make the world a better place to take a short and selfish ride out of the atmosphere for a few moments at that price. My God, that is an incredible amount of money to share instead of use in such a masturbatory way.

A private, experimental aircraft, carrying no members of the public, has a minor accident that injures no one … AND THE FAA IS INVESTIGATING ??? People, this is exactly what’s wrong with our government. It now has the power to control every millimeter of our lives.

For the post re: FAA; Well I think if this ship careens into a neighborhood then everyone will care if there was not an investigation. Think if the people overseeing the offshore drilling would have accidentally done their job- couldve prevented the mess in the gulf!

ttowntom, hate to break it to you, but the FAA has been doing that for decades — investigating ANY air accident is a major part of the agency’s responsibility. You could own a private airport and have an accident on takeoff and they would investigate. Not to control YOU, but to inspect the aircraft so as to learn if the manufacturer needs to change something so the next person doesn’t have the same or a worse accident.

The manufacturer of this craft has proven very, very good at handling problems in the past, and I’m confident they’ll get past this.

As for the price tag, yes, it’s expensive, and well above my pay grade. But at my age (59), I likely couldn’t pass the flight physical even if I had a gazillion dollars.

I’ve been absolutely enthralled with space flight ever since I saw Sputnik when I was a boy, and have always dreamed of going into space. But even if I had the money and was physically fit enough to go, I’d have to think about it. Now — if I could go to the Moon, spend a day or two on the surface, then come back at that price, heck yes, I’d go.

Kurt, I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t a mass-produced vehicle the FAA needs to inspect so the “next person” doesn’t have the same problem. Please give me one good reason the government should squander its time, our money, and Virgin Galactic’s freedom to investigate a trivial accident with an experimental, privately designed and operated craft before it’s even carried a single member of the public.

Hawkseyez,

You said,” problem is without government intervention,regulation and even protection space might end up being another area we humans fight each other over disgustingly”.

Whoa there! “WITHOUT”??…you mean “with”, I’m sure. People don’t create wars, poverty, social disorder, etc. GOVERNMENTS DO all the above and worse. You had a great comment going there until you hit that ‘w’ word.

….and you’re right 1/4 mil. is NOT too much at this point, but if BIG GOV’T sticks its regulatory nose in it, you can bet that price will get ALOT closer to $1 million.

http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home

This is another private enterprise. Went there this morning to see their progress and got to touch a NASA lunar lander and a rocket plane. Caddo Mills TX

@tom… Mojave services GA and business flights. If Scaled used their own private facility *maybe* you could make this point, but it would still be weak. Your logic as outlined is poor. The Boeing 747 was once an “experimental, privately designed and operated craft” before it had “even carried a single member of the public.” The WK2 has but one end purpose, to carry a paid-passenger craft to altitude to launch it. If it is having problems, and the FAA were to fail to act on it, and those passengers of a future SS2 flight were harmed as a result of said issue, the FAA would have to answer for it. When would you have the FAA begin checking on problems? After the aircraft starts carrying passengers?

Human spaceflight is far too costly for it ever to be a viable private business. Once the first one crashes and kills a bunch of rich folks, it will quickly end. I hope it never happens, but it will. Imagine the lawsuits.