Regular guys have made it to space with no government help. Well, maybe they aren’t regular guys like me, but hey, close. I watched the whole thing happen on a live webcast today at work. It was pretty intense. A lot of waiting at first, then, the ship was released from its jet carrier; the rocket engine fired, and up it went. That is where it got a little scary, it started spinning, it looked really out of control. The pilot cut the engine 11 seconds early due to the spin. The ship topped out at 358,000, or about 67 miles, and returned to Earth as planned. Space technically begins at 62.5 miles. This is actually the second trip to space for Space Ship One. The first was a few months ago, just a test flight. This flight was an attempt at the X Prize, a 10 million dollar prize for the first non-government funded space flight of three people performed twice within a 14 day period in a reusable spacecraft. I’m a geek I guess, but this stuff is just really cool!
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