Rutan hits 200k feet! Almost there!

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrotesnip

Well, since nobody has provided an answer it's obviously far from obvious.

pacplyer responds:
Then I will answer it for you Steven since you are obviously a student
of history, but cannot learn from it. Burt Rutan intends to go into
orbit and to planets next. This sub-orbital flight is just a first
step. The reason for debut of the X-prize was the same reason for
debuting small rafts to float between islands, or debuting affordable
private aircraft to explore remote parts of the earth. Not to achieve
a statistical first, but to find new areas to multiply. That's all
humans have ever done. NASA may never be adequately funded to do it
("they can put a man on the moon, but they can't feed my nine welfare
children; who are still multiplying!") So like GA, we'll have to do it
ourselves in the private sector to get any quality out of the venture.
(recall Henry Ford and his illogical notion of the affordable private
auto; absurd!) So, given that the planetary systems in our galaxy are
nearly countless, the winner of the X-prize will achieve a kind of
early immortality in history as he sets the table for a new golden age
of human migration. You just can't see it now because you're probably
fixated on the present problems of transit between these systems.
Radiation, weightlessness etc. Recall Columbus. His government
wouldn't spend the money for human voyage since they thought it was
pointless, so he had to look elsewhere. The hurdles of long-haul were
considered insurmountable obstacles in those embryonic days. Was his
first voyage trans-Atlantic? No. He gained experience on trips of
no-consequence (that were achieved by others before) hugging the
coastline of the Mediterranean.

Who cares about the X-15? It's an expensive high speed relic of the
cold war. Nobody can afford one. Rutan's concept is a low-speed
vehicle that is practical and will no doubt lead to low-cost orbital
development. Forty-year-old brute-force technology figures little in
furthering the dream of spaceflight for the masses. The X-prize is
designed to get the common man out in the water; but still in sight of
land. Why can't you see something so obvious that everyone else can
plainly see?

pacplyer