“Look at the progress in 25 years of trying to replace the mistake of the shuttle. It’s more expensive…not less…a horrible mistake,” Rutan said. “They knew it right away. And they’ve spent billions…arguably nearly $100 billion over all these years trying to sort out how to correct that mistake…trying to solve the problem of access to space. The problem is…it’s the government trying to do it.”
Burt is clearly one of us. His brother Dick ran for Congress in the Inland Empire as the Republican nominee, but it was a long shot race.
All in all a fine couple of people. I used to drive up to the Mojave airport from the Valley when they were building Voyager. In those days you could just stroll in and chat with them. Go Burt!
I was reading an article in The New Yorker magazine on Burt and he was joking about how it would be easier if the pilot of spaceshipone were someone other than Mike Melvill. He jokingly said something to the effect that if it were a liberal and something happened on the flight he wouldn't care.
Burt's now my hero.....
You know, It's funny, While I was on tour recently I started reading Ayn Rand's "For the New Intellectual", and thought immediately of Rutan. Go figure.
It was hard not to notice all the American flags around their launches, and the banner that read, "SpaceShipOne, Government Zero."