May,05,2011

Hi.

You can call me an ordinary joe if you wish.
But as long as I remember I have been very enthusiastic
about space travel.

But I have little to cheer about these days.
May,05,2011 will be the 50th anniversary of America's
first manned spaceflight; a suborbital one.

Unfortunately, that day will come and go without
a space tourist or private citizen venturing off
to altitudes over 100km to fittingly commemorate
and celebrate that anniversary in such an appropriate fashion.
[sigh!]
Neither Masten, nor ARCA aerospace, Starchaser Industries, nor Armadillo, nor indeed Scaled Composites will be ready by that date to loft a private
citizen on a suborbital flight to altitudes over 100 Klicks.

I can understand Scaled Composites having had to slow down due
to first an deadly explosion a few years ago, delaying WK2 and SS2;
then due to winds wrecking a construction hanger at Mojave last year, and lately a landing-gear mishap has caused further delays.

So it looks like it will be test-pilots only onboard the SS2 pushing the envelope until at least 2012; no private passengers, not even Sir Richard Branson, allowed onboard during any of the test-flights next year.

Just maybe, just maybe though, Sir Richard Branson may hitch a ride as a passenger on an SS2 flight into space on February,20,2012; assuming there maybe at least half-a-dozen previous SS2 test-flights upto and over 100 Klicks carried out in safety.
That's my fervent wish.
You all know what anniversary February,20,2012 commemorates.

As for Armadillo Aerospace?

No human (not even a test-pilot) it appears will ride the AA clustered/modular suborbital spacecraft upto 100Km + altitude until? until? until?,,,my guess is around 2013-2014 at the earliest.
Of course, further delays, even many years of delays, are always in
the realm of possibility.
Sorry to be so depressing, but reality is never about optimism or even pessimism but about realism.

I think April 12, 1961 is the more important anniversary, but the rest of the post is completely right. Nobody is ready.