Free Republic

If you're a fan of SpaceShipOne, the world's first privately developed manned spacecraft, it's pretty hard to beat last year's act at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis., when the historic rocket plane was flown in for an appearance on the way to the Smithsonian. But today, AirVenture is unveiling a replica in its Oshkosh museum that can do something the original is no longer able to accomplish. Don't expect the replica to zoom out of the place where it's hung in the AirVenture Museum to the edge of outer space, like its forebear did back in 2004 to...

Two years ago last Wednesday—June 21, 2004—the space world’s attention was focused on a small airport in the desolate high desert 150 kilometers from Los Angeles. Or, more precisely, in the skies above Mojave Airport, as a small winged spacecraft, built using lightweight composites and powered by an engine that effectively used laughing gas and rubber as propellants, became the first privately-developed manned vehicle to cross the 100-kilometer boundary that serves as the demarcation line for space. From a technical standpoint, that achievement was not that impressive: governments have been sending people into orbit, and not just brief suborbital hops,...

A maverick aviator with Elvis-like sideburns, Burt Rutan spread his futuristic vision Friday of space travel no longer dominated by the government but by daring engineers like himself. Seeking to inspire students, faculty and visitors at the University of California at Los Angeles, Rutan offered a new vision for 21st Century commercial travel--including "spacelines" instead of airlines and resort hotels in orbit--taking average citizens where only handfuls of astronauts have tread thus far. Dressed in blue jeans and a matching shirt, Rutan called for a new era in aviation, saying risk-taking adventurers like the Wright brothers are needed again to...