[CWOJackson]

His "space" achievement is comparable to the first Mercury flight...not Apollo. Mercury funding was not that great and the government had not yet fully committed to the project. Even compared to Gemini, Mercury was extremely primitive and cheap.

[true_blue_texican]

Primitive, yes; but I'm certain not anywhere near on the cheap as SpaceShip One.

[anymouse]

Mercury funding was not that great and the government had not yet fully committed to the project.

I guess 10+ years and Billions of dollars spent on military missile development didn't give the Mercury guys much of a head start?

SS1 was multiples of factors of safety better than Mercury. NASA calculated that Al Shepard had about a 50/50 chance of surviving the launch. Rutan built in many more graceful failure modes into SS1 than any NASA vehicles have ever had.

[BillM]

A ballistic rocket with a pod on top versus a controllable AIRCRAFT FLOWN by a pilot! Sounds the same to me!! (NOT)