Space Forum / Space Policy / June 2004

HR 3752 (the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004) has passed
the House, but appears to be stuck in the Senate.  I don't understand
Capital Hill politics well enough to begin to understand what the
hold-up is.  Can anyone explain?  And, what can we do to help it along?

Someone here recently posted a URL to a story at spacedaily.com, which I
found to contain some very bad journalism.  I wrote to the feedback
address to point this out and ask for a correction:

Congratulations to Scaled Composites, Mike Melvill,
Burt Rutan, and all the rest of everyone involved
in this flight.   100 km once is just the beginning,
but it was a historic first step.

Nearly all technical data posted in sci.space.policy
is pure nonsense couched in technical jargon.
Most of these posts are crosslinked to large
number of other newsgroups frequented by the

From http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ss1/status.html
The following statement was issued by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe on
today's private, non-government flight of SpaceShipOne:
"We applaud the remarkable achievement of Burt Rutan, Paul Allen and test

I'm wondering if the successfull commercial space flight of SS1 will bring
orbiting space hotels any closer in the not-too-distant future. Will this
flight make it easier for private companies to get VC funding for the next
step, i.e. orbital flight?

On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 16:48:06 GMT, "Alan Erskine" <alanerskine1@bigpond.com> wrote:

John Glenn and Jake Garn? They were as good as sandbags on their Shuttle ...

The first flight above 100km on the first day of summer.
Interesting.
D.

Is there anybody who's in Mojave right now and has managed to get an
internet connection?  If so, how about describing the situation for us
as it unfolds, for those of us who can't be there?
Thanks,

There is a very brief interview with Paul Allen in Newsweek, available
online here:  <http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5251227/site/newsweek/>
It contains this disappointing tidbit:
"Q: Are we on the verge of a commercial space-tourism industry?"

From the report: "Given the complexity and challenges of the new vision,
the Commission suggests that a more substantial prize might be
appropriate to accelerate the development of enabling technologies. As
an example of a particularly challenging prize concept, $100 million to

From BusinessWeek, <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_25/b3888046_mz011.htm>:
'In 15 years, he [Rutan] predicts, "space tourism will be a
multibillion-dollar business." By year end he plans to hand Allen a
business plan and designs for commercial space ferries that ...

Wow, I'm really starting to love these guys!
"The Commission recommends that Congress increase the potential for
commercial opportunities related to the national space exploration
vision by providing incentives for entrepreneurial investment in space,

Source: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-03j.html
"Named the Baikal, the first stage of a new two-stage Russian rocket
called Angara, the Russian flyback booster will rocket to about 38
miles (60 kilometers) before a second stage with payload separates